


When In Rome

by walkerofthestars



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: AU, Ancient Rome, BAMF Hiccup Horrendus Haddock III, BAMF!Hiccup, Badass Hiccup, Berserkers, Camicazi makes an appearance, Dragon Trappers, Hiccup is blessed by a god, Hiccup joins the military, Hiccup runsaway, I'm bad at remembering the dragons are there, Magic, Mild descriptions of violence, OCs - Freeform, Praetor Hiccup, Runaway AU, Swearing, War, a lot of OCs - Freeform, badass!hiccup, beta as in i posted it on wattpad first lol, bog burglars - Freeform, head empty full of fic ideas no room for remembering giant scaly beasts, hiccup runs to ancient rome, i just went all out, i started writing this years ago then abandoned it, major character death? only if you get attached to my OCs lol, now i have reweritten it but better, the OCs aren't self inserts trust me, the dragon master, this story has a lot to do with gods okay, warlocks and sorcerers and champions oh my, why did i do this to myself
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:34:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 33,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25099978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/walkerofthestars/pseuds/walkerofthestars
Summary: Hiccup finds himself in Rome after he slays the Red Death. Blessed by a god and gaining attention for his dragon training skills, he is offered a place in their military. Wanting to stop dragon trafficking and trapping, he joins.Three years later Drago Bludvist arrives, wanting to destroy dragons and wipe their existence from history. He is not alone, aiding him is celestial meddling. Hiccup and his new friends must stop him, but no matter their success Drago keeps coming back.And it would seem a homecoming is on the horizon.or: Hiccup becomes a war hero and has to save Berk and the dragons before a god can destroy them both.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Astrid Hofferson, Hiccup Horrendus Haddock III/OC, OC/OC
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	1. Act I, Lost and Found

**Author's Note:**

> Look, this is probably very niche. I will warn you, it's long and it's got a lot of OCs. I don't think a lot of people will enjoy it, but I enjoyed writing it so there's that.  
> I posted this on Wattpad, but I wanted to bring it here because… well, I think the audience here will prefer it.

Hiccup was a renegade.  
The statement, ‘Hiccup was a renegade’, is made of three main parts. Hiccup was and a renegade. Here ‘hiccup’ refers the 15-year-old dragon rider from Berk who does not need to be reminded of what an unfortunate name he has. It does not, therefore, refer to the momentary condition known as ‘the hiccups’ or the notion of a mistake- although most people considered him to be one.  
A renegade is someone notorious for rebellion, usually one who betrays a country or organisation. Here, however, it simply refers to the kind of person done with everyone else’s bullshit.  
And finally, was is a word used in the past tense. It means something no longer exists in a certain state of being.  
So, Hiccup _was_ a renegade.  
But first, it might be preferable to talk about when he _is_ , just to give this story some context. 

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third lived on Berk, an island so barren of joy and good medical care that it could be considered almost American in nature- if America wasn’t being run by a far better group of ancient civilisations at the time or Berk wasn’t being located in the North Atlantic Ocean, west of Norway, Iceland and other extremely cold places.  
He decided he did not, in fact, enjoy that fact. Not because of the lack of good medical care or the temperature, but because it lacked any form of emotional importance to him, due to the fact that everyone there was a massive dick to him.  
Well, not _everyone._  
But, originally every idea of leaving Berk had been a mere daydream unachievable due to his inability to take a boat and sail somewhere else. But when he befriended Toothless he was given some better options.  
And those options are what lead him to a dragon nest, a ball of blazing fire, a Roman camp and now a trip into a dreamscape with a Roman god. Although he hadn’t quite processed those last two yet.  
After his dragon had led him to the dragon nest, they’d taken down the queen out of sheer luck. He’d expected to not wake up, not after being sent hurtling into fire without his dragon to protect him. Last he remembered was the fire below him and Toothless above him, trying his best to get to Hiccup and save him.  
But, surprisingly, he did wake up.  
He sat up in a room that was unfamiliar. The shadows twirled at the edges of the room unnaturally and the ceiling seemed to melt into a starry night sky. The marble floor beneath him had a pattern that shifted underfoot that dizzied him too much to keep looking. And when he did, he instead looked up at one end of the room where the floor raised slightly, and two thrones rose from the polished rock.  
They gleamed from a light within, one charcoal and neatly carved with practical-looking lines and shapes, the top closed to two points, made like a trident with the middle tine punched off. The second was a red-tinted gold, flowers hiding skulls inside the buds shaded hell-beasts with claws and teeth as sharp as any dragon etched in. the top curving into a cruel looking fan of sharpened picks like a simplistic image of a sunrise.  
And on the charcoal throne sat a man. His head rested on his fists, propped on his knees. A black toga draped across one shoulder and pooled all the way to his ankles, which were wrapped with the leather of his sandals. Pale skin shone almost translucent against the material, silver veins barely hidden spiderwebbing beneath. Black hair was tied back with a leather band, stray hairs falling in front of his face, where two wholly black eyes pierced hiccup’s very soul.  
His heart thudded against his chest, or he presumed it was as he had no way of knowing if it did. His head snapped to behind him, at the other end of the hall. Two skeletons stood stock-still, weapons in hand, next to a door that rose from the floor like a wave from water.  
Hiccup took a sharp inhale and looked back to the man on the throne, who cleared his throat and sat up.  
"I suppose these are rather confusing circumstances to wake up in, Hiccup, but I will attempt to explain them," his ankles crossed, hands sitting uncomfortably in his lap, Hiccup got the impression this man didn’t sit on thrones very often, likely by choice, "my name is Pluto, and this is a dream.”

Hiccup had not woken up with the intention of having his whole world view changed in a few short sentences.  
Sadly, he was having no luck in stopping that from happening.  
"this can’t be a dream, it’s-"  
"it’s not quite a dream, no. sorry, I could have worded that better,” Pluto said, barely a twitch away from an awkward smile, "but, this is something similar. After your battle with the red death you were found by a stray Roman ship on its way to attempt at killing the queen itself in a mad plot at avenging a pair of dead praetors. They found you and your dragon friend and brought them back to their camp to heal you. Because of this you have crossed into roman waters, allowing me to contact you using a… dreamscape, so to speak.”  
Hiccup blinked. And blinked again.  
"what?”  
Pluto sighed, "this will take some time to understand. I need you to be as open minded as possible.”  
Hiccup momentarily thought of how he had chosen to befriend a dragon, a species his whole village had cast-out as unspeakably horrific. He could do open minded, alright.  
"I am the Roman god of the underworld, I take care of every soul after their final breath, a job that gives me certain power in areas relating to death.” He held his gaze with Hiccup, hoping it would keep him rooted to the conversation, "your ability to befriend a dragon like a night fury has… interested me. And my other, less easy to label abilities tell me to further that interest.”  
Hiccup blinked.  
"this very minute your real body is being treated in a roman infirmary, but after your leg is fully healed you will have some options- bear with me I don’t have much time to speak with you.” Hiccup closed his mouth, forcing back the questions. "the romans you will speak to will offer you a place in their city, after killing the red death you have earned their respect and thus they are willing to pull some strings to let you live in Rome if you so wish. They will also offer you the ability to join the military, which is optional but I suggest you take them up on it.  
"you can, of course, merely leave and find your own home, but my intuition thinks you will enjoy the paths you can take living in Rome. these people are neutral to dragons, they were too far south to be affected by the queen’s tyranny. They will all be interested in you and your dragons bond. Make a home here, it will be far more comfortable than the archipelago.”  
Hiccup hesitated, "why should I trust a single thing you say?”  
"what other plans do you have?”  
"why should I even believe you’re a god? Hel is the goddess of the underworld! Not you!”  
"I do admire Hel, she is quite affective, although her brutality is… unnecessary.” Pluto pursed his lips, "I simply do a similar job to Hel, but my main domain is in Rome. I look after their dead, she looks after the Norse.”  
"and your proof?”  
"is more difficult to obtain," Pluto sighed through his nose, "you are a smart boy, Hiccup, I’m sure you can decide who you do or do not trust yourself. But if you decide to believe me, do take my words to heart. And if you join the roman military," he pulled a neatly folded piece of paper from thin air with a flick of his wrist, it floated to Hiccup and dropped into his hands, "give this to Aeliana Archiater, she is Praetor of the fourth legion- you will have to wait to have these terms explained I don’t have enough time. This letter will ensure you an easy transition into the military.”  
“what is it?” Hiccup asked, slipping it into his vest’s inner pocket, wondering distantly if it would be there when he woke up.  
“a letter of recommendation. Well… it’s a bit more than that. Actually, give it to her anyway. Even if you don’t want to be a soldier.”  
“right.”  
“when you wake, expect a bit of confusion, realistically speaking there should be a language barrier between you and the Romans, I will eliminate that, allowing you all to understand each other till you can speak Latin yourself.”  
“thanks?” Hiccup said, unsure of how such a thing was possible. Either this guy was a god, something close to it, or highly delusional.  
“you will also receive my blessing, do not take such a thing lightly. If you choose to join the military I will become your patron, granting you certain… abilities. You have impressed me with your connection to a night fury, a being born partially of my domain.”  
It was somewhat comforting that befriending a dragon had at least brought him some positive relationships, unlike all the harm it would have done literally all others. He decided not to dwell too much on what Pluto was saying, for all Hiccup knew he’d wake up and be comforted by the fact this was all the weirdest dream he had ever had. So he did not think too much on what Pluto was suggesting. In hindsight he wished he did, it would make some future surprises less surprising.  
“I am not a god of prophecy, but I know this when I say it,” he held Hiccup’s stare, black eyes deeper than any darkness Hiccup had ever stared into, “great things can be expected of you, draco animam meam.”  
“pardon?” those last three words blurred slightly, sounding unfamiliar and strange. There was an echo to it, something in his brain told him he ought to understand what he’d said.  
“sorry, I’m translating Latin to Norse for you, things are slipping.” He ran his hand through his hair, pushing back those stray hairs, “the title I called you is much more endearing in Latin and doesn’t really have a translation.  
“but what it meant, essentially, is ‘Dragon soul’.”

About a week before this exchange a hundred Roman ships sailed towards an island in the Nordic Archipelago.  
Aeliana Archiater was the newly appointed praetor of the fourth Roman Legion. She’d previously been a legionnaire, running one of the nine groups in her legion. She’d received more praise than she expected and now understood that to mean she did her job well, because when word came that the prior two praetors of her legion had been killed by dragons she was immediately promoted.  
They hadn’t given her a co-praetor as is customary, this was due to the fact that praetors were only supposed to be instated after a great victorious battle or at the Feast of Fortuna, which had yet to occur for the year. She was only promoted out-of-tradition because the legion needed a praetor. Romans stuck to tradition, mainly out of respect for them but also out of fear of the gods. She was pushing those traditions by her new leadership, seeing as they weren’t in serious battle she and her higher ups weren’t willing to risk retribution by appointing a second one.  
And that fear made her uneasy as she lead a mission to the dragon nest in the north. She was co-leading it, with a more seasoned praetor from the fifth, which gave her some sense of security. It also helped that that praetor was a friend of hers, Charlotte Manius. She had support in this, and it wasn’t just the 100 ships sailing with them.  
Some had told her not to worry about the gods. The great thing about them, they’d said, was that they barely tended to show up. Although that wasn’t so great when they were needed. But Aeliana could not believe them.  
Not when she had seen them show up. Personally.  
Her brooding was cut off when another of her friends rushed into the captain’s cabin.  
Atticus Mare was the spitting image of a Roman soldier. Blonde, well-built and loyal to every moral that could be associated with his station. He was legionnaire of the fifth legions first cohort, one of nine. Aeliana had once had the same job except in the fourth.  
“the island is within sight, Char asked me give this to you.” He handed her a spyglass, thinner than her old one and with SPQR engraved in the bronze- one of the many standard pieces of equipment a praetor was issued with. She hadn’t been able to get hers before she left, she hadn’t even been officially instated in the capital like she was supposed to. More traditions she was breaking. “she had a spare from… you know.”  
She did. She wished she didn’t.  
She accepted the spyglass with a nod and he followed her out of the cabin onto the deck.  
As she passed her soldiers fell in line, including the legionnaires she used to be comrades to. They were now her inferiors. It twisted something in her gut.  
“prepare to disembark, ready yourselves.” She dismissed, standing at the bow of the ship. She could see the island the nest habited already, a giant dark lump of rock rising from the sea. She unfurled the spyglass, focusing on the rocky shore first, looking for the best place to land. Then up to the mountain. It was a natural fortress of rock. They’d have to use their catapults to break down the walls. They would lose the element of surprise if they did that, though. And be swarmed by an uncountable amount of dragons. Something in her ached at the thought of killing dragons. They were just as innocent as any other animal at the mercy of a horrific ruler.  
She’d seen dragons be peaceful, be gentle, be honourable even caring. She did not enjoy the prospect of going in and laying waste to an entire civilisation of them. She told herself she was being heroic, avenging the praetors that came before her. The dragons surely had attacked Nordic civilisations around here. She was doing more good than bad.  
But it didn’t stop her from regretting all of this.  
Her spyglass wandered to the tip of the mountain, nondescript, but steam seemed to be rising from the inside, suggesting a hole into the centre of the mountain.  
Her theory proved true when a rush of colour filled her view.  
She gasped as she removed the spyglass from her eye, watching as thousands of dragons poured out of the mountain like a coloured waterfall disobeying gravity.  
She heard her fellow soldiers yelling as they caught sight of the dragons as well, Atticus exhaled slowly and mumbled a short prayer.  
And then the rush tapered off and a small black dragon rose from the mountain, a dark teardrop of shadow against the greying afternoon sky. It floated in the air momentarily, staying above the mountain, unlike all the dragons that now seemed to be… fleeing?  
Yes. They were fleeing. Taking flight in every direction. They rose high in the sky, some hiding in the clouds. But the black dragon stayed.  
There was a quiet, as the dragons grew distant, their squawks and roars growing further away.  
And then the mountain exploded with a mighty boom.  
The sound was all encompassing. It rushed past Aeliana like an avalanche. It set the waves crashing, tumbling over themselves in answer to the cacophony. Her hair swept slightly in the breeze and a cold chill raced its way up her back.  
With the tearing down of the mountain came a dragon bigger than any Aeliana had ever seen. Bigger than anything Aeliana had ever laid eyes on. It was so huge it reworked her understanding of the word huge. Only mountains and oceans should be that size.  
But no.  
The dragon drew it self up and roared with a ferocity that set every hair on Aeliana’s skin standing. Atticus gripped the rail of the ship to support him, his knuckles turned white. Aeliana’s likely did the same on her spyglass.  
And after that roar came another, tiny in comparison. It came from the small black dragon, which now flew past the larger one’s head like a fly to cattle.  
Aeliana almost pitied the poor thing. So stubborn it would not back down. She couldn’t judge though, as she and her small army were about to do the same thing.  
And likely die trying.  
But then the dragon flew along the spine of the queen, letting out a series of bright glowing plasma bolts. A high screech filled the air as the dragon spun and tumbled by the queen effortlessly.  
Her breath hitched.  
“night fury,” Atticus whispered, voice almost dying in his throat.  
“everyone to the oars, turn us around!” Aeliana jolted back to life at the sound of Charlotte’s voice, only a ship between them.  
She was about to repeat the order herself, but her eye caught on something.  
They’d grown closer to the shore, not close enough to give an order to make land, but closer.  
And because of it she noticed something clinging to the night fury’s saddle.  
It took a steep turn to avoid a swipe from the queen, and with the twist something on the night fury shifted and almost fell. Barely staying on, but clinging regardless, till the dragon evened out.  
Aeliana flicked out her spyglass again and tried to focus on the night fury. It was difficult from how fast it was moving, but Aeliana could tell one thing for sure.  
Someone was on the dragon. There was a person _riding_ that dragon.  
She flicked it closed again and ran to the port railing, yelling orders to stay on course. Atticus was at her heels, questioning that decision.  
Her ship was close to the one on the port side, so close she didn’t think twice about vaulting over the rail and landing with a roll on the next boat’s deck.  
She kept going, giving the same order again, making her way to Charlotte’s ship as fast as she could.  
It was already moving, a bit far from this ship and not well lined up but she wasn’t going to let Charlotte go without showing her what she’d seen.  
She vaulted over the rail.  
Air whipped around her, the sea crashed beneath her and a quiet filled her ears as she grit her teeth in preparation to hit the freezing water.  
She didn’t.  
Her hands hit the rails of the next ship. Her shock let her slip, her elbows hit the deck before her hands did, but they eventually gripped the wood with a tenacity she had never achieved before. Her fingernails cracked as she gripped the wood and hauled herself up. Her hand found the top of the rail and she dragged her body over it. her armour clanged and her chest ached but she sprinted to Charlotte before her brain could catch up. The adrenaline in her system was running, she needed to take advantage of that.  
She grabbed Charlotte by the shoulder, dark-blonde hair whipped around as Charlotte faced her, mid-way between giving an order.  
Aeliana took such a deep breath it hurt like knives raking down her throat, but she swallowed it down and gasped out, “we need to land.”


	2. Introductions- of a Sort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to meet our OCs a bit more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, uh... it wasn't till I reached like 50000 words that I realised that... I mixed up legionnaires and centurions. so, uh...  
> (uncle Rick would be so disappointed with me, smh)  
> but yeah, I'm not gonna change it. I've written way too much and have more to go so like, I'm not gonna go back and fix it all. no one comes to fanfiction to learn about the Ancient Roman Military, okay.

When Hiccup finally woke up, for real this time, it was to the sound of Toothless’s snores, creaking furniture and metal being sharpened.  
Wait.  
He shot up, his memories rushing to him. The nest, the fire, the… god?  
Uhh…  
His eyes caught on someone sitting on a wooden stretcher bed to his right. She was wearing leggings, boots and a dark green knee length tunic tied at the waist. light hair was tied back, a stray braid floating in front of her left eye.  
And in her lap was a deadly looking sword, a whetstone hovering just above the edge.  
“uh…” Hiccup smiled awkwardly, eyes glancing to his left where toothless was curled up, tail shifting absently under the stretcher he was lying on. What use was a dragon friend if they were going to fall asleep on watch?  
His eyes flicked back to the girl- woman? He couldn’t tell how old she was, but she didn’t look much older than him- as she gripped her sword backwards by the pommel and rested the tip in the soft dirt at her feet.  
“and who, pray tell, are you?” she asked. Her voice had a strange accent to it, melodic, and the R’s seemed to be rolled.  
“um,” hiccup gulped, sitting up and fidgeting slightly, but he forced himself to keep his eyes on the girl, “Hiccup Haddock.”  
The girl raised her eyebrow, “enlightening.”  
“I’m, uh,” his conversation with strange-dream guy came back to him a bit clearer. This had to be that Rome place he was talking about.  
He didn’t know if he could trust the strange guy, if he was even real. He absently checked his vest’s inner pocket, making it look like he was merely anxious. He was surprised to find the letter inside.  
Maybe, he just needed to take a leap of faith. That’s what had lead him here so far, what had caused him to make the best friend he could hope for.  
He took a breath, “I’m from the north. An island called Berk, in the Archipelago.”  
“and you’re a dragon rider?” she asked, voice dry, something about her demeanour suggested she had been roped into this.  
“I, uh. Yeah. Yeah, you could say that.”  
“I was under the impression Vikings preferred killing dragons.” She shifted and leaned forward a little, “and that they didn’t speak Latin.”  
“well, you see,” He smiled awkwardly, with absolutely no idea how to handle this.  
“don’t try lying, I’ll know if you do.”  
Hiccup swallowed, wishing Toothless would wake up and he could just run out of here. But as he took in the scenery he realised that probably wouldn’t happen.  
He seemed to be in an infirmary, just as Pluto had said. It was an open-air building, a few canvas curtains drawn here and there, but it was mainly rows of stretchers with benches and cabinets sprinkled throughout. There weren’t walls, but thick wooden columns lined the rows of stretchers, undrawn curtains tied to them. Someone dressed similairly to the blonde Roman, except with a white tunic, walked between a row not far away and stopped at one of the few inhabited stretchers to remove someone’s bandages.  
He couldn’t make out much outside the building, but he noticed other buildings and people walking by. He thought he maybe heard a vendor heckling into a crowd, and possibly metal crashing into metal in the distance.  
There didn’t seem to be anywhere to run, only to fly. And Pluto seemed to be suggesting he was in a military camp or something of the sort. They’d likely have watchtowers and catapults.  
He’d have no chance. He was stuck here. He may as well make the most of it till they let him go. If they did.  
May as well take that leap of faith then.  
“this is gonna sound very insane, but bear with me, please.” He said, slipping the letter out of his vest.

Atticus Mare was a soldier. He had joined the military when he was twelve and became a centurion at thirteen and a half- not to brag.  
His trainers said he was gifted. His parents said it was a family resemblance.  
He’d been holding a sword as long as he could remember, staring at maps and schematics and tactics till his eyes bled for years, and it led him here.  
He was Legionnaire of the fifth legion’s first cohort, on his first campaign holding this position he was expected to take a dragon nest. His parents said he would be a hero. His older brother, miles away in the capitol, suggested he was more likely to become a corpse.  
But no, he’d survived, because someone else had killed the queen. That someone was in the infirmary right now, likely awake and speaking to Charlotte.  
Outside the infirmary Atticus sat eating a strip of dried meat- today’s breakfast- his friends waiting with him.  
Aeliana stood at ease, picture perfect Praetor, dark hair elaborately braided and a strap of leather tied around her head, resting above her brow. She wore sandals and short linen leggings, her light tunic fell halfway down her thighs. All this under her greaves, small shoulder armouring and an armoured belt, sword strapped at her side.  
Technically speaking this was protocol. All soldiers were supposed to wear those armourings at the minimum whilst on duty, inside the camp or on a campaign, the personal sleeping quarters exempt from this. If any of Atticus’s superiors came along he’d be getting verbally flogged for not wearing the same.  
But they were at the fifth and fourth’s assigned province. Atticus’s only superiors around were Charlotte- his praetor- and Aeliana. One of which didn’t always abide by the protocol, and the other only expected herself to be perfect.  
With them, sprawled on the grass, was Jael Mori- centurion in the fifth- wearing basic clothing that was almost definitely somehow against basic rules. She was nursing a headache from the prior night and was thus lounging in the shade of the tree to Atticus’s right.  
Her twin brother, Verlin, was in far better shape. Unlike his sister he didn’t enjoy celebrating on military ground, and only got mildly tipsy last night. He was also abiding by protocol, in that he was wearing basic military clothing and armour. What was against procedure was the letter he was writing.  
“you realise if it gets out that you sent a letter before a campaign was officially over you’ll be publicly whipped and then thrown out of the army.” Atticus said, eyes glancing to Verlin who was leaning against the low stone wall that ran from the archway of the infirmary to the main street. It was likely the only architectural piece made just for design in the whole camp.  
“oh what a shame,” he scoffed, his Latin still a bit choppy accent-wise. He and his sister had only recently joined up in the military and had, before-hand, been more on the nomadic side. They had family in the south and west nations that they frequently moved between. Atticus only knew them because their family inside Rome worked in the senate, side by side with his brother.  
“at least try to pretend you joined willingly, and that you have interest in staying a centurion.” Atticus sighed, “if my superiors find out I’m letting you send a letter to anyone I’ll be joining you on the whipping stand.”  
“seems drastic to me,” grumbled Jael, accent slipping all the way to her Egyptian roots with her headache stopping her from caring about appearances, “you romans just can’t settle on probations and groundings, you have to go brutal.”  
“that’s how we stop people from performing insubordination.” Aeliana rolled her eyes and joined Atticus against the wall, “although you two seem to take it as a challenge.”  
"oh, ssh, you’re no fun.” Verlin murmured, signing the bottom of the page, wrapping it up and slipping it under his right arm’s greave.  
"this is the army," came a voice from the infirmary, "it’s not supposed to be fun.”  
Atticus snapped to attention, Aeliana stood from the wall but remained at ease. Verlin and Jael very slowly pulled themselves up and to a mockery of an attentive position as Charlotte stood in the archway. Behind her was the lanky Viking and his dragon friend. He seemed to be entirely distracted by his leg, trying to become acquaintanced to his new metal prosthetic. Yet he was definitely taking in everything his eyes could see. He seemed to be complacent, but he was definitely looking for a good enough opening to fly out.  
He wouldn’t find one. Not in a camp like this.  
Charlotte and Aeliana may have their leadership questioned at every turn- hence the hardcore campaign to the dragon’s nest being pushed on them as a chance to prove their abilities- but they knew how to run a camp, and that meant keeping it secure from the inside and out.  
“this is Hiccup Haddock,” Charlotte gestured to the Viking, “and his dragon Toothless. They’ve got favour from Pluto.”  
Atticus was expecting many things from this exchange. He was not expecting that. 

Hiccup stared at the wood ceiling, tracing the grain with his eyes.  
Under him, Verlin lay in his bunk, reading some book by candlelight. To Hiccup’s left was the wall, his right rows of other bunks. There were romans in several of the beds, some reading by candlelight as well, others sleeping. Against the wall, at the foot of the bottom bunk, Toothless was curled up. The night fury was rather grumpy that the only available bunk had been a top one and therefore couldn’t be closer to his rider.  
Hiccup was still wrapping his head around the day’s events. He’d been given a short tour of the camp he was in and Aeliana Archiater explained how most things worked. She had sent word to the emperor the day before about him and was awaiting a response. But if all went as she expected, he could join the fourth legion.  
Hiccup didn’t know why, but he wanted to join. He wanted to become one of these centurions, wanted to fight to protect these people who were welcoming him in, wanted to… live in Rome? the idea was almost funny with how ridiculous it was, except unlike most ridiculous ideas this was possible.  
He didn’t have to be a soldier. He could open a forge, a library, could teach people about dragons, for the first time in his life he had every option he could think of. But… there was something drawing him to the military.  
And Aeliana and Atticus- the blond guy who’s hair was so bright it could be molten Gronkle lava- were both excited about his ability to befriend dragons and wanted to learn everything. Aeliana expected the emperor would be, too, so had also asked if he could take trainees and teach them about dragon riding. His blessing and letter from Pluto was giving him some good chances.  
It was a lot.  
And now he was sleeping in a Roman military barracks, everything alien and different to him. He needed to talk about this to someone. But everyone here was… well, they were nice and welcoming, but they didn’t have the added experience of living in the archipelago for years.  
So he crawled out of bed, getting a warning from Verlin that monsters lurked in the dark, and snuck to the forest around the camp. He found a terror quicker than he expected, quietly thanking whatever deity existed that the Romans didn’t kill dragons every second they lived and won it over with some dried meat and made it smell the spyglass he had.  
It took some time and a lot of over-communication, but eventually the terror seemed to understand what scent to follow and that it had to keep hold of the letter. As it flew off Hiccup shivered, it was a lot warmer here than Berk, but the night seemed to have an unnatural edge to it here. Or maybe it had something to do with that Pluto guy and his cryptic warnings and ramblings about power and blessings.  
Regardless of how much Hiccup really should be thinking about all that, he decided instead to hurry back to the barracks and snuggle under the blankets before Toothless woke up and realised he was gone. That dragon could be a real mother hen.  
On his way back he stopped by a fire pit, rubbing his arms and shivering.  
“I think you have underestimated the chill of a Roman winter night, Viking.”  
Hiccup jumped and whipped his head around, behind him a woman stood, wrapped in a shawl, tugged over her hair, and a flowing long-sleeved dress. Her hair was fiery red, unnaturally really, and her skin dark. Her eyes glowed- the fire seemed to have moved from the hearth to her eyes, flickering like it lived there.  
“take a seat, I’d like to have a chat,” she moved around him and sat on one of the logs around the hearth, Hiccup did the same, watching her warily.  
“who are you?” he asked, “how did you know I’m from the north?” he refused to call himself a Viking. It was a title he couldn’t claim, and also one he didn’t really want.  
“my name is Vesta, Goddess of the hearth and home.” Her eyes bore further into Hiccup’s mind, burning and bright with an unnatural and ethereal power, “my brother Pluto commonly falls into the trap of speaking in a room with a fire place, where information always finds its way to me.”  
Fear spiked its way up Hiccup’s spine, his skin prickled. Another god sat before him and he still didn’t know how to react. Was this going to become a common occurrence? He sure hoped not.  
“fear not, I do not wish to harm you,” she said. Her voice was low, almost rhythmic. It reminded Hiccup of the warning horn that was so big it needed ten Vikings to move it. “I merely want to make sure my brother is not passing his blessing to… someone undeserving.”  
“uh… okay?”  
Vesta smiled slightly, “this will take only a moment I promise, then you can get back to your dragon.”  
“what will take a moment?” Hiccup barely finished his sentence when the fire leapt high into the sky like a raging inferno, he fell back, scrambling away.  
As he fled, his vision spotting with the glare of the fire, he felt the temperature spike and his vision seemed to collapse on itself. Momentarily, his body froze without his permission, heart thumping and ears ringing.  
Then his vision faded back, the heat died and his limbs relaxed. He took his chance to scramble to his feet, eyes wide at the setting before him.  
He was back at Berk.  
_How did you get to Rome little Viking? Why are you here?_  
He heard Vesta’s voice reverberate through his mind, pinging off the edges with a painful clarity.  
He watched as his memories played before him. He shot down Toothless, found him in the woods. He re-experienced every second of befriending Toothless and learning how to fly with him, being chosen to kill the nightmare, running away, seeking refuge with trader Johan, fighting the red death.  
_Interesting._  
Hiccup didn’t find it very interesting, he hated watching himself shoot Toothless down. It was the thing he regretted most at the moment, his guilt simmered as he watched it happen.  
_There’s quite a bit of shame here, isn’t there?_  
Hiccup couldn’t help but feel insulted. How dare this random goddess come into his mind and call him ashamed.  
But he had to admit, she was right. He wanted to look away as he watched his memories of running from Snotlout, watched himself cry himself to sleep, watched himself be berated for his mistakes, watched himself try so hard to be taken seriously, to be accepted.  
But he couldn’t look away. He couldn’t close his eyes. This was all in his head and he was forced to re-watch his history as Vesta scrutinised his every waking hour.  
_But a burning resolve…_  
At that hiccup perked up slightly, because at least this all-powerful goddess was recognising some of his better moments. His triumph as Daggur pushed him into the water, not noticing the current. He watched himself grit his teeth and power against the water, fighting to reach the beach. Watched as he was almost crashed against the rocks.  
_And a gentleness…_  
He thought of the memory before vesta began watching it. the time he’d made Astrid an axe when she could not buy one herself. But then he also watched himself at Fishlegs’ house, pouring themselves over some book they’d traded Johan for- likely having gotten pity from the trader and getting the book for near nothing. He had forgotten the few trips to Fishlegs’ house he’d had before he’d been cast out so severely.  
_and empathy…_  
he was planning Toothless’s tailfin, working for hours over the saddle and gear. Then it was the one time he’d snuck out at night to talk to the dragons in their pens, sneaking them fish and going on long ranting apologies about what the Vikings had done to them.  
Vesta was silent, turning to some of Hiccup’s more buried memories, watching as Snotlout beat him down verbally, broke his resolve over the years until eventually it built up again as he spent more time in the forge. She watched his interactions with his father, how he ended every conversation feeling more dejected than the last.  
When she was done she tugged Hiccup back to consciousness. His mind was hazy but he knew Vesta was guiding him back to the fire, sitting him down on the log.  
“apologies, Hiccup, but this was a necessary evil.” She sat back on her log, drew her shawl closer. For a moment she seemed younger, smaller. but it was a trick of the light, Hiccup decided, it must be.  
He ran his hand through his hair, groaning, “yeah, okay, apology accepted.”  
“I’d tell you to get some rest, but I think it goes without saying. Regardless, I wish you luck, the years to come will be trying.”  
Hiccup looked up, moments away from asking a question but Vesta stood and stepped into the fire. She dissolved into the flames, her red hair blending in, eyes burning brighter, and disappeared.  
He supposed that meant he had passed whatever test he had just been given, so he stumbled back to the barracks and crawled his way into bed, not finding it any easier with his prosthetic leg.  
He fell right into sleep, its embrace far more comforting than Vesta’s mental interrogation.

The next morning Hiccup woke up to the green terror sitting on his chest like a proud dog.  
It held a return message from Johan, very quickly written and slightly ramble-y, but helpful none the less.   
Johan admitted he had only read Hiccup’s letter once, and when he got to the part about living and working in Rome he had started skimming. He blamed it on excitement.   
Johan went on a miniature tirade about how great of an idea living in Rome would be, how training dragons sounded like his calling, yada-yada, the man sounded more excited than he was. He did, however, admit he was also excited by the opportunity it would give him to expand his market further south if he already knew someone there. Bonus points if they were a respected civilian or even soldier.   
He also promised to change course towards Rome _immediately_ even though he was supposed to be on his way to Berk. He briefly ranted about opportunities and trading jargon and how he’d love a tour of whatever settlement Hiccup was most acquainted with by the time he got there.   
Hiccup was beyond surprised at the emphatic response, but soon learned that Johan wanted to stay away from the archipelago for a while anyway in the wake of his new-found opinions of dragons.   
Johan’s response did help, though. It reassured Hiccup that this wasn’t the most ridiculous idea he’d ever had and it wasn’t an unattainable dream. If anything Johan’s words were more affirmation and support than he’d ever been given in any of his life’s decisions.   
So, when he made his way to the campsite’s planning room to speak to Aeliana, he felt far more open to his options. Toothless seemed to like that fact, because he was taking the time to prance about the campsite and acquaint himself with his surroundings much more than the day before.   
The planning or meeting or war or whatever-you-wanted-to-call-it room was large enough for a big table covered in maps and schematics and all kinds of things with several chairs around it. today Aeliana and her friend Charlotte were the only occupants of those seats.  
"morning," Aeliana greeted as she glanced up from something in front of her. Charlotte merely waved, occupied with a sandwich she was half-way through.   
Toothless trotted up to the table, sniffed the maps, grimaced and curled up against the wall, next to the door.  
“morning,” Hiccup greeted back, taking a seat himself, “I wanted to talk about that offer you made.”  
“the one that is still only a possibility,” Aeliana said, a short smile in his direction as she flipped a piece of paper over, “news from the capitol will take some time to get here, sadly.”  
“blast,” Charlotte wiped at her chin as a piece of her sandwich fell apart onto the table, staining the schematics of some kind of weapon. Hiccup snickered and got a short glare from Charlotte in return, Aeliana only rolled her eyes.  
“I thought I was supposed to be learning from you,” she mumbled, sifting through a few papers.  
“lesson number one, eating on the go means longer sleeping hours.”  
“learning? For what?”  
“I was recently appointed Praetor, Charlotte has filled the roll for a year already and thus she’s supposed to be showing me the ropes, as ours are sister legions.” Aeliana explained, “although sometimes it seems I stick closer to the rules than she does.”  
Charlotte waved a hand, half preoccupied with cleaning the mess she’d made. “beside the point, you thought of what we suggested? About joining the fourth legion?”  
“yes,” Hiccup fidgeted in his seat, “I’d… I’d like to. You already said living in Rome would be a possibility, I’d like to very much. I’d like to teach people what I know about dragons. And I’d like to help make sure they stay safe as well as the people who live here.”   
Aeliana was beaming, “I’m glad to hear it.”  
“you mentioned, yesterday,” Hiccup said, fiddling with the edge of a paper, “that it is suspected there are some dragon hunting rings throughout the empire. Like traffickers?”  
“yes,” Charlotte said, suddenly much more serious.  
“I’d like to join the fourth, and help you deal with those people. Protect the dragons and those who ally themselves with them.”  
Aeliana pulled a paper from her stack, “that’s good to hear,” she handed it to him and his eyes scanned the lines as quickly as possible, “because we’ve already got some interest from our legionnaires for dragon training.”  
He could see several different kinds of handwriting and inks, but all were the same in the message. For the first time ever he had people asking him to teach them, looking to him for advice.   
“reckon you can pass on what you’ve learned, oh great dragon master?” Aeliana asked.   
“yes,” he grinned, “yes, definitely. I’d love to.”  
and, suddenly, Hiccup was no longer a renegade.


	3. Settling In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before Hiccup can join the military, the senate has to argue about it- but don't worry, that's kept off screen.  
> What is on screen, is Hiccup trying to understand what he's getting in to.

Hiccup was strapping Toothless’ new saddle on- this one was made especially for Hiccup’s new prosthetic, which he’d had a tinker with. There was an olive tree providing some shade from the hot mid-day sun. he was waiting for Aeliana and Charlotte to finish up the meeting with some legionnaires- the soldiers who’d been promoted to lead cohorts of the legion. He was just outside the praetorium, which was what they called the planning or meeting or war or whatever-you-wanted-to-call-it room.  
He’d spent the past week running around teaching people about dragons. It was strange, all these people looking to him as an authority on something. Even though he’d proven himself time and time again on Berk as a well-practiced inventor and smith no one had ever taken his talents seriously. They went to Gobber for information in those areas, even if it’d be easier to just pull Hiccup aside and ask something. It didn’t bother him before, it did now.  
Why was it that these people he’d never met treated him with more respect than the Vikings he’d grown up around?  
Today, however, he and the two Praetors he’d managed to get into the good graces of were going to travel further into Rome to The Capitol where he’d be spending a good while training people how to befriend and fly dragons while also being trained himself. Aeliana and Charlotte had promised they would spend their time in the capitol getting clearance from the senate to fight against the dragon trafficking systems throughout Rome and surrounding it, once they had that clearance they could order and move their soldiers as they wished.   
But Hiccup wanted to help. So he would join the fourth legion and fight alongside them to protect dragons. However, Aeliana refused to let him do so without at least some training. Four months minimum which required continued learning while fighting. Atticus- the blondie whose smile reflected bright enough to rival the goddess Sif’s hair- said a good soldier never stopped training.  
Sometimes Hiccup paused to be bewildered over the fact that two people within only a year older than him were leading military legions. His father wouldn’t trust him to walk around at night on his own.   
Toothless made a low rhythmic grumbling sound and Hiccup realised he’d been worrying at the edges of some of the leather straps.  
“just a bit spaced out, bud,” Hiccup sighed, “this still seems too much like a daydream.”  
They didn’t have to wait much longer, Aeliana and Charlotte rounded the corner and stretched out the kinks in their backs, “I still think these weekly meetings are unnecessary.” Charlotte muttered, her back popping three times.   
“how are we getting to the capitol exactly?” Hiccup asked, “you two don’t have dragons.”  
“unfortunately,” Aeliana started, “there are rules about Praetors traveling long distances when not on quests. There’s a whole lot of if-buts-and-maybes with this stuff. We have to travel with a few other people as guards, they’ll have dragons. We’ll just be riding with them.”  
Hiccup wasn’t sure a bunch of people who’d been training with dragons for only a week were all that reliable, but he supposed it was just one of those procedures that couldn’t be skirted. It was this or taking horses, Hiccup’s preference was clear.  
Which meant they had to wait another few minutes for several legionnaires to land, with them was Atticus, Jael and Verlin who’d decided they were going to try and find themselves a dragon while traveling.  
And then they were finally off, a couple days journey south ahead of them. 

Hiccup had decided he’d do whatever it took to never sit through another senatorial meeting.  
He’d be the most outstanding, law abiding citizen just so he never had to sit through those stuffy old senators and their minions going through as many rules and regulations as possible. Half of them had beards that covered their mouths so well barely any one could actually hear what they were saying and the other half were young upstarts with rich families who thought they deserved everything in the world. Realistically, they reminded him of Mildew and Snotlout back on Berk.  
By the end of it they hadn’t even come to an official decision about whether they’d accept a non-Roman into their military, which Hiccup found ridiculous. It wasn’t like it was a particularly hard decision to make.  
Either way at least he didn’t have to stay for the whole thing. Aeliana was stuck there for the whole thing, representing the fourth and fifth.   
Hiccup took the chance to finally go for a decent flight. Rome was warmer than Berk but even still the air chilled him down to his bones. Toothless’s higher temperature kept the chill away enough for him to get by but even still, if he was going to keep up the thrill rides and long-distance flights he’d have to come up with something that kept him warm while flying.  
He filed that idea away as he landed outside the visitors barracks. The mess hall would be open soon and he’d rather get in early before all the good food was gone.  
He stepped out of Toothless’s saddle and saw Charlotte sharpening a dagger on the step of the barracks patio as he walked up to hang his extra coat. The sun had dipped low in the horizon and the whole sky was awash with pink and orange.  
“sit with me Hiccup, I’d like to chat.” Charlotte said before he could crash on his bunk for a breather.  
He sat on the step next to her, Toothless curled up down one end of the patio, and she slipped her sharpening stone into a drawstring pouch then sheathed her dagger. It’s bronze hilt reflected the last sunlight with a vengeance. The scabbard was leather with SPQR embossed along it. SPQR- it meant ‘The senate of the people of Rome’ Hiccup had been informed. Most military issued gear usually had it written somewhere, except for your armour.  
“this was my brother’s,” she said, holding the blade between her finger tips, one elbow rested on her knee, “it was his when he was Praetor of the Fifth legion.”  
“I’m sorry,” Hiccup mumbled, not quite knowing what else to say. The way she said it clearly meant he’d died, Hiccup wasn’t surprised. The way this army seemed either you stayed till you died or you were promoted into higher or different roles. But he didn’t know how to console her, he’d known her a bit over a week, and although he very much intended to get to know her, and the others who saw potential in him, he was still in the early moments.  
“it was a year ago, I’ve dealt with it,” she said this with the emotive tremor of someone who had most definitely not gotten over it, “I bring this up because you remind me very much of him.”  
“oh?” Hiccup shifted, scratching the back of his head.  
“he always wanted to do the right thing. He wanted to protect, serve and save. That’s why he joined the army, that’s why I joined the army.” She sighed and sat the dagger down next to her and stretched her legs down the steps, “but I worry that you may not have thought about it as much as you should.”  
She gave him a heavy stare, filled with an emotional intelligence much to old and burdened for someone not even sixteen yet. Her braid rocked in front of her face and framed the steely eyes that pinned Hiccup down.  
“I- I have,” Hiccup stuttered, “trust me it’s not- it’s not something I take lightly.”  
“once you join the legion there’s no opt-out when it gets too hard. You’re in and that’s final.”  
“I know,” Hiccup said, “I understand. Even if I didn’t join I’d still be going out there to protect the dragons. I can’t just ignore it all. Not when I have the ability to help. I can either go out there and be some kind of vigilante dragon person or I can fight alongside fellow people who cherish dragons and the freedom they bring.” Hiccup looked out to the clouds, he’d been flying among them minutes ago, “at least by joining the legion I can be trained, I can learn and I can have access to information and supplies that will help me. I’ll have a hell of a lot more of a chance.”  
“aye, that is true,” Charlotte muttered, staring out at the sky herself, “I trust you. You’ve been given warning and I believe you’ve listened.” She clapped a hand on his shoulder, “and if the senate will not let you become one of us in ceremony then there is nothing stopping us from keeping a few secrets and working with you in an undisclosed fashion. Either way my legion will be fighting these dragon trappers and I will appreciate you as an ally, and, I hope, a friend.”  
Hiccup gave her a small smile, ”well, if friendship is the way it’s going let’s play a game.”  
“a game?” she arched an eyebrow.  
“yeah, it’s called two truths and a lie. You tell me a lie and two truths and I have to guess which is which. And we take turns.” He said, leaning against the railing of the stairs and propping his feet up.  
“is there a reward or a punishment for winning or losing?” she asked, leaning against the top stair on an elbow.  
“not really,” Hiccup looked over to Toothless, “I’ll go first, we’ll start easy. My dad popped the head of a dragon clean off its shoulders when he was young, I fell into a creek on my first flight with Toothless, I hate fire. Now you guess what’s what.”  
“hmmm,” Charlotte assessed Toothless like she was trying to determine if he was the type to throw someone in a creek- short answer; yes. “how young was your dad?”  
“rumour has it in my village that he could barely be considered a child yet,” Hiccup said nonchalantly.  
“oh, well that ones the lie then. No way could he do that.” Charlotte said, smiling “too easy.”  
“no the lie was the fire part,” Hiccup grinned, “I used to work in the blacksmith all the time on Berk. I spent more time with the Smithy, Gobber, than I did my dad.”  
“oh,” Charlotte blinked, “huh. The more you know. okay, my turn. Uh, my parents wanted me to be a professional portrait artist, my brother once threw me off our three-storey-house’s roof, I have been arrested. Go.”  
“Hey, I said easy not obvious,” Hiccup chuckled, “no way have you been arrested, that’s the lie.”  
“nope,” Charlotte giggled slightly, “it was the windowsill, not the roof.”  
Hiccup’s jaw hit the floor, “what were you arrested for?”  
“I ‘stole’ a horse from one of the farmers in my hometown. What really happened was I thought it was the new stallion my dad had purchased, but it turned out to be a newly broken-in thoroughbred.” She shrugged, “I was twelve, it was an accident, my dad had it all fixed up.”  
“portraiture though?” Hiccup asked after he’d sobered from the thought of Charlotte arrested.  
She shrugged, “I’ve been painting since I was little. Albeit I wasn’t good till recently but what can one expect.”   
“huh,”   
“my parents are always sending me letters begging me to desert and come home, live quietly as a painter.” She stared at the clouds a moment like she could imagine her parents reflections in them, “they know it’s not possible, but they dream it is. They don’t want what happened to my brother to happen to me.”  
Hiccup’s face fell, he sighed and fidgeted with the edge of his shirt.   
Charlotte gave him a small grim smile, “I prefer working here anyway. My painting can remain a hobby, a release from the job. It’s best that way, and I want it that way.”  
Hiccup nodded a little, “yeah I get what you mean.” At her look he elaborated, “I… draw. A little. I’m not great but… I started so I could sketch ideas for inventions, I’ve just… branched out I guess.”  
Charlotte raised an eyebrow and sat up, “should have kept that one for your turn.”  
Hiccup laughed and took his turn. This time sticking to something more obscure. Charlotte did the same. They went back and forth till eventually Charlotte stopped before she had her turn, having noticed the fading light. the mess hall would be open in minutes and if they wanted to be getting there without stumbling in the dark of fresh night they would have to hurry it up.  
At the table Aeliana, Atticus, Jael and Verlin joined them. Aeliana caught them up on the senate meeting’s breakthroughs- spoiler, there were none- and Jael rambled for a while about the book she read that morning before going to the nearby forest to search for dragons.  
Atticus explained to her that she might want to actually learn how to train a dragon before she found one and Jael merely stated that she’d probably figure it out on the spot. Hiccup huffed a laugh while he slipped his small book from his vest, having already finished eating.  
“oh hey, that looks cool,” Verlin said, looking over his shoulder at a sketch of toothless he’d drawn, “you should draw me something to get tattooed.” He joked.  
“what?” Hiccup asked, “why do you want a tattoo?”  
“why not?” Verlin looked to the others on the table, “we should all get tattoos together, that’d be wicked.”  
“how about we don’t,” Aeliana said, giving Hiccup a look, “don’t indulge him.”  
“oh come on! Have a little fun, Lia! Make some memories!”   
“most times you plan an event to ‘make memories’ it involves enough drinking that none of it will be remembered.” Charlotte said drily, shooting Hiccup a small smirk.  
“you guys are no fun at all,” Verlin grumbled. 

Three days after Hiccup’s introduction to Roman Politics he was scheduled to head to the training dome in the first legion’s camp. Their site was just outside the Capitol on the southside, a big field used for war games between the site and the outer circles of the city.  
Some of the legionnaires of the first legion had found some dragons and lured them in with fish. Hiccup was going to spend a good few hours teaching the lucky soldiers who’d gotten their names down first how to train them.  
He had twenty soldiers. too many for his liking, he’d told them so many could spook the dragons. But a lot of people wanted to learn and they could only do so much to keep numbers cut back. at least these dragons were from Rome, they likely had no terrifying memories of people slaughtering their kind for years.  
Hiccup had plenty of fun showing off and the soldiers also enjoyed the wonder of befriending beings so different to themselves. The whole experience was a real confidence boost.  
As the soldiers were leaving and Hiccup was packing things up- saddles, rope, dragon-nip- Atticus walked in the gate.  
“morning,” Atticus greeted, taking the final coil of rope and hanging it up, “how’d it go?”  
“pretty well actually,” Hiccup smiled, “I mean, no one got eaten, that’s a plus.”  
“oh, fun!” Atticus swung a bag off his back and took out two swords, made of wood, “I wanted to give you a crash course in Swordsmanship before you get thrown in with recruits in actual training. They can be… severe. And they expect even rookies to know the basics.”  
“oh, thanks,” Hiccup blinked, “why are the swords wood?”  
“it helps you build strength and control. Wooden swords are clunky and sometimes even heavier than properly crafted metal swords.” He took one sword and threw it to Hiccup, keeping the other and walking to the middle of the dome.  
Hiccup followed, awkwardly holding the wooden hunk that had been crudely shaped into a sword and sanded down. Atticus stood, feet shoulder width apart with his left slightly in front of the other. he placed the tip of his blade in front of his foot and rested his left arm behind his back.  
“this is a form of parade rest used when your superior is inspecting your blade,” he instructed, Hiccup copied the pose, “shoulders back.”  
Hiccup huffed but stood straight, “geez you gain like three inches when you stand properly,” Atticus chuckled.  
“swordplay isn’t about fancy moves. It’s about predicting your opponent’s movement and strategizing at split-second speeds. You need to defend or attack whilst also investigating how the person you’re fighting is doing so. It’s all a form of ingrained multi-tasking.”  
Hiccup nodded, “how can you predict their moves?”  
“their stance, where they look, how they grip their sword, etcetera.” Atticus took the hilt with both hands and lifted the sword up so it floated in front of his body, he leaned forward slightly and twisted his back foot to the side, “this is the easiest, most used and- in my opinion- best stance.”  
Hiccup copied, “square your feet more and bend your elbows,” Atticus corrected, “good, now defend yourself.”  
“what?”  
Atticus moved faster than he thought possible. He brought the sword in a swipe for Hiccup’s legs that set Hiccup scurrying then brought it down on his head. Hiccup barely managed to block it in time.  
“good job,”  
“aren’t you going to teach me?” Hiccup asked, struggling to hold the sword up under Atticus’ weight.  
“learn by doing!” Atticus set off again, going slightly slower this time, swiping and stabbing at any place Hiccup left unprotected by his sword. But every time he blocked a hit he opened himself up somewhere else.  
Eventually Hiccup blocked a hit that had too much momentum behind it and he lost balance, he tripped and let go of the blade on the way down.  
“nice, you lasted pretty long there for a beginner.”  
“what, forty seconds?” Hiccup said drily.  
“suggestion,” Atticus said helping him up, “learn to hold in the sarcastic remarks now, any actual trainer will literally beat it out of you.”  
“oh, joy.”   
Hiccup retrieved his sword and the two stood apart in the stance. Then they started sparring.  
And again.  
And again.  
And again.  
And again.  
And again.   
Eventually when Hiccup noticed the sun dipping and Toothless shifted once more to be comfortably entirely in the shade he’d had enough.   
“I’m sick of this!” he tossed the sword aside, “I just can’t get it! I’ve tried for years on Berk nothing’s different here!”  
Atticus dropped his arm to his side and let the sword dangle, “come on hiccup you’re only learning. You’re doing really well, just-“  
“look,” He interjected, “I’m sure it’s weird to you because you grew up being good at it, but I just can’t use a sword. I just can’t. I can make one, I can fix one, I _cannot_ use one.”  
He sighed and ran his hand through his hair before heading to the bench in the shade where his waterskin was.  
“Hiccup,” Atticus put one hand on a hip, “Hiccup! come on! Quit being so stubborn.”  
Hiccup raised an eyebrow then chugged half his water in one go.  
“just cause you’re not a master in one session doesn’t mean you won’t ever be.” Atticus picked up Hiccup’s discarded blade and set them both against the wall, “you’ve got to start somewhere.”  
“yeah. But that doesn’t mean I’ll get somewhere.” Hiccup rolled his eyes and sat on the bench. Atticus sighed and followed.  
“how’d you learn to draw?”  
Hiccup gave him a dry glare, “Is that a serious question?”  
“yeah, tell me.”  
Hiccup sighed, “I got a book and a pencil. I sat in front of a tree. I drew the tree.”  
“was it good the first time?”  
Hiccup snorted, “it looked like a bunch of triangles stacked on each other.”  
“exactly. You weren’t good at it the first time.”  
“it’s not like that Atticus,” Hiccup sighed, “I’ve been trying and failing with weapons and fighting my whole life. the first thing my dad had made for me was a tiny axe. I used it as a paper weight. I’ve been trying and failing for as long as I can remember. I’m just not cut out for it.”  
Atticus hummed, “okay. How was it taught to you?”  
“what?”  
“how did the people on Berk try to teach you sword skills?”  
“uh…” Hiccup sucked a breath through his teeth, “they put a weapon in my hands and said ‘go! Kill something!’”  
“kinda like I did, okay.” Atticus mumbled, “what did you do to get better with drawing?”  
“uh… I studied things? closely. I spent time with them and learned how to communicate light and shadow and form with a pencil on paper.”  
“right…” Atticus smiled, “okay. I know how to do this.”  
“what?”   
Atticus slapped the bench and heaved himself to his feet, collected the swords and walked back to the centre of the ring. “you coming?”  
Hiccup sighed and rolled his eyes. But he got up and stood across from Atticus with his arms crossed. “so how are you going to teach me? What’s the big breakthrough?”  
“I realised I’ve been trying to teach you the way _I_ was taught. But we’re not the same. You’re more like my dad,” he smiled, “when he learned it was with a great master of the blade. And he was taught differently. I remember because that’s how he tried to teach me and I always failed. But he scoffed at the way my school teacher taught me.”  
“you learned sword skills in school?” Hiccup had learned what school was while he’d been in Rome, it was where kids went to learn things like the alphabet.  
“it was an elective,” he offered Hiccup his sword, “but whatever. I know how to teach you.”  
Hiccup rolled his eyes but accepted the sword.  
“okay. This is how you block from a swipe like this.” Atticus demonstrated the blow in the air, then demonstrated the block, “try it.”   
Hiccup did, Atticus corrected his stance. He told him to sit in the guard stance from the beginning and block when Atticus tried the hit. He did and Atticus swiped slowly but fluidly.  
“get how you do it?”  
“yeah.”  
“cool. Now this is how you block this kind of hit.”  
And they went on. He showed him three blocks this way then tried all three hits while hiccup blocked. Then Hiccup tried to make the swipe at Atticus. He taught three more and repeated the process, also going over the first three.  
He went over every hit and block he could think of in threes, each time they practiced them on each other getting faster till they were barely slower than actual fighting.  
They finished with another attempt at a spar, Hiccup held his own longer than any attempt before. He still lost, but he’d made headway.   
He finished the rest of his water while Atticus put the swords back in the bag. The sun was lower, it was well into the afternoon.  
“how’d you know that’d work?” Hiccup asked as Atticus drank from his own waterskin.  
“like I said, you remind me of my dad.”  
“how so?”  
“he’s a senator,” Atticus said with a barely hidden grimace, “but he’s a real knowledge guy. Likes to discover knew things and try stuff. He’s a… well, he’s a real philanthropist.”  
“seems like a nice guy.”  
“yeah,” Atticus smiled slightly, “it’s thanks to his job that I know the twins. Their mum’s a senator as well and their dad is one of the representatives from Egypt that Rome is visited by often.”  
“oh, cool,” Hiccup said, “Egypt is that empire south of us, right?”  
“yeah, that’s the one,” Atticus sat down, “either way, the way I’m teaching you is the way any master who genuinely enjoys the craft teaches. It’s learning the forms so you have something to fall back on and a way to understand movement and how you can flow from one hit to another.”  
“why don’t the trainers teach it like that?” Hiccup asked sitting next to Atticus.  
He shrugged, “guess it took too long, or was difficult with a lot of students. Maybe both. Either way, my dad looks down on their decisions.”  
Hiccup noticed the crestfallen look on Atticus’s face that only seemed to grow the more he talked about his dad, “are you and you father not on good terms?”  
He looked up, “no, no. I love him, I really do. But he likes to make it known when he doesn’t like things. one of those things is my decision to join the military. He thinks we’re all a bunch of boneheaded jocks who can’t think for ourselves. It’s probably why I got along so well with Charlotte.”  
“oh.”  
“doesn’t much help that we never talked much when I was little anyway, he was away a lot for work,” he shrugged, “we don’t know each other much, I always felt unappreciated, he always felt undermined. It wasn’t that healthy of a relationship.”  
“yeah, I can relate to that,” Hiccup sighed, “my dad’s about the same.”  
“no mum?”  
“no. she died when I was little, dragon attack.”  
“oh,” Atticus seemed surprised by the answer. At first glance he probably couldn’t see how Hiccup could make peace with dragons when they’d taken his mother, he couldn’t blame him.  
“yeah.”  
Atticus sighed and leaned back against the wall, “my mum left when I was five.”  
“I’m sorry to hear that.”  
“it’s okay,” hiccup looked up into Atticus’s eyes, they were startling with the orange light of the afternoon, “I never knew her anyway.”  
Hiccup sighed and leaned back against the wall as well, “what a depressing duo we are. The underappreciated sons club.”  
Atticus snorted, “hey, there are worse clubs to be in. besides,” he smiled, “at least it all led to where we are now. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”  
Hiccup thought on that the rest of the night. Whether, if given the power, he’d turn back the clock and trade his experiences for a different life. As he lay in his bunk, Verlin softly snoring above him and toothless curled up next to him, feeling for the first time like he shouldn’t be somewhere else he realised; he would not.


	4. Magic 101

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiccup finally finds out the nature of Pluto's blessing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i would like to mention now that this fic is gonna have some adult-ish themes. you know, drinking swearing, fucking war. these characters have gone through and will go through some shit and they won't always cope with it easily, even if i don't get the chance to truly flesh out their emotions due to the fact that i would like to finish writing this fic before i graduate. but yeah, that's your warning, keep it in mind.

“so,” Pluto looked round to his friends, “thoughts?”  
“I still think this is ridiculous,” Neptune muttered, “why not bring this up with the council? If these visions you and Proserpine have been having seem so important.”  
Vesta snorted, “right, because Jupiter will acknowledge an enemy that hates dragons. He’s more likely to welcome this man in.”  
Neptune ran his hand through his silver hair, shifting over the gills in his neck, “I don’t know brother, this seems serious. Maybe we should be looking for help from powerful sources?”  
“what I’ve seen isn’t the gods fighting a battle, realistically we cannot,” Pluto mused, “although Jupiter may like to call himself and his council all powerful and capable of whatever they so wish, we cannot fight this for them.”  
“so leave them to do it on their own,” Neptune’s eyebrows knit, cerulean eyes shining, “I don’t see how you think giving this Viking mortal your blessing is necessary. What you’re suggesting is to practically give him the power of-“  
“of a demigod, I’m aware.”  
Neptune gave him a dry look, “you are sure of this?”  
“completely. He may not understand it now but Rome will need him and his friends help when the time comes.” Pluto said.  
“you’re no god of prophecy, brother,” Neptune warned.  
“And?” Vesta leaned her head against her hand, elbow propped on her chair’s arm, “other gods have done stupider things in the wake of prophetic dreams.”  
“I’m just saying this might be a bit rash,” Neptune said.  
“and you’ve never done anything rash before?” Pluto raised an eyebrow, “considering how you and Jupiter can overreact I think it’s my turn. I’d hate to be beat in dramatics.”  
“very funny,” Neptune sighed, “well… if you think it is necessary then I assure you I won’t tattle tale to the big bad king of the Council. But I don’t understand it.”  
“thank you, that’s all I need.”  
“why, exactly?” Neptune asked, “you could have just done it.”  
“because this way, if Jupiter finds out, he has the leverage of a goddess with good history and a god on the council agreeing with his actions,” Vesta rolled her eyes, “honestly brother how have you run a kingdom this long?”  
Neptune gasped with an overdramatic flair and placed his hand to his chest, “I am wounded.”  
Pluto sighed, “go be wounded in the ocean please, the longer we fuss over this the more chance Proserpine has of finding out.”  
“oh, is that relationship drama I hear? spill!” Neptune stood with a newly excited air.  
“how about instead I come over for tea,” vesta snickered, giving Pluto a wink then transported herself and Neptune to his castle in the ocean, her voice lingering as she said, “you owe me.” 

Hiccup woke up in a cold sweat with a pounding headache and cramps that had him hitting his head on the bunk above him.  
“gods Hiccup, it’s not even dawn yet, come on,” Atticus yawned above him. Hiccup barely heard it, his head was pounding.  
“go back to bed,” Atticus mumbled as he turned over on his mattress, the sound of it creaking sliced through the haze with a blinding clarity.  
His ears rang, a piercing shrill that whined from a low note up to the highest sound he’d ever heard. A drop of sweat dripped down his face. Hiccup was painfully aware of it, cold against his skin that was aflame. His breath wheezed out between his teeth.  
An insect clicked outside the barracks and Hiccup’s head snapped to the window. The sound reverberated around his skull. A lone candle flickered just outside the door, Hiccup’s eye caught it and wouldn’t let it go. He shivered, his bones clattering, skin dripping with sweat, the shirt and pants he wore were dark with it.  
Something was wrong. It felt like there was a furnace burning up inside him, trying to claw its way out.  
Hiccup tore his eyes from the candle to look at the sky. It was still dark, black and endless. A few stars twinkled and the pinprick of light seared into his eyes. He couldn’t do anything now, he’d have to just rest till morning then make his way to the infirmary. He wasn’t sure where that was in the first legion’s camp, but he’d find it.  
So Hiccup shifted back onto his bed, careful not to make any noise else he wake the others, and closed his eyes.  
But he couldn’t sleep. He tossed and turned, every part of his body aching. He watched the light slowly filter into the room, it warmed the whole place up. He switched between sweltering and freezing in seconds, the temperature change slithered up his spine.  
He closed his eyes, in a bit he could get up and head to the infirmary. He just had to doze a little longer and maybe it would feel like he wasn’t in so much pain.

“Hiccup?”  
He cracked his eye open a little, the light was way too bright to be normal, too strong, too powerful.  
The sound came rushing in. people walking outside, someone shifted and their armour creaked, a dragon roared in the distance.  
Hiccup groaned and clutched his head, “what?”  
“you alright mate?”  
Hiccup cracked an eye open, Atticus was leaned against the top of the bunk, stooping down to look at him, his brow creased.  
“’m fine,” Hiccup sat up, slow, the light was too bright.  
“you look like you’re melting.”  
“it’s okay, I’ll grab some water,” Hiccup blinked against the light, surprised when it dipped for a moment, golden hair silhouetted as Atticus leaned closer. he rested his hand against Hiccup’s forehead.  
“gods, you’re burning up!”  
“I’m fine, I’ll head to the infirmary, it’ll be fine.” Hiccup pulled himself up and hauled his legs over the side of the bed.  
“I’ll help you get there.”  
“no, it’s fine Gus,” Hiccup batted his friend’s hands away. Toothless decided to take interest, he sniffed at Hiccup with a low mewl.  
“see, Toothless thinks there’s something wrong, I’ll take you to make sure it’s okay,” Atticus said, and lifted Hiccup from under his shoulders to his feet.  
“I’m fine,” Hiccup swayed and stumbled to the door, “I’m fine.”  
“yeah,” Atticus sighed, “sure you are.”  
Atticus grabbed one of his arms and slung it over his shoulders, Hiccup barely had a second to think of how embarrassing this was before Atticus was out the door.  
At the foot of the stairs Verlin stood, already dressed, drinking from a waterskin.  
“what took you so long? What’s wrong with Hiccup?” he asked as Atticus reached the bottom of the stairs.  
“he’s sick, I’m taking him to the infirmary. We’ll have to go visit the city another time.” Atticus said, about to walk off. Verlin cut in front of him and felt Hiccup’s forehead.  
“when did this happen?” Verlin asked, looking to Atticus and getting a shrug in return.  
“I woke up sometime in the night,” Hiccup said, at this point he was resigned to the fact that he was stuck with the two worrying over him.  
Verlin’s brow creased as he looked Hiccup up and down, “I recognise this,” He mumbled.  
“oh good, we won’t have to spend forever with the medics-“  
“no,” Verlin cut Atticus off, “no, we can’t take him to the infirmary. We gotta take him to Jael.”  
“what?”  
Verlin looked to Hiccup, “are your senses heightened?”  
“what?”  
“shut up Gus,” Verlin snapped his fingers in front of Hiccups face, and nodded when he grimaced and shut his eyes against it. to him it looked like a flash of colour that moved much too fast. The sound echoed inside his head, “yeah, this is a Jael problem.”  
“right…” Atticus looked at Hiccup with concern, “you’re sure?”  
“positive. Come on,” Verlin huffed and started walking down the path, silver hair bouncing, “she was on her way to her apartment not long ago.”

It turned out that Jael had an apartment in the outer ring of the Capitol, one of the suburbs closest to the camp. It was next to a little corner store and across from an even smaller library. Atticus helped hiccup up the three steps to the door and Verlin knocked. Hiccup leaned against the wall and studied a small amulet that hung from the candle sconce next to the door.  
Hiccup wasn’t listening close but he caught Verlin explaining what was going on and Jael’s sharp, accusatory “what?” as she turned to study Hiccup.  
“I think whatever blessing Pluto’s given him is catching up,” Verlin explained.  
“an overload?” Atticus questioned, then at the twins look of surprise, “what? I know stuff.”  
Jael sighed as she took hiccup by the bicep and lead him inside, “get off my porch.”

The room was dark and Hiccup honestly couldn’t be bothered to take in the decor. Jael sat him down on a couch then rushed off somewhere. Hiccup held his head in his hands as the headache attacked again with a new fervour.  
“hold this,” Jael ordered and shoved something cold into his hands, then rushed off again.  
He could hear Jael moving about to his right, metal clanging and a fire being lit. the sounds dug into his head.  
He took a deep breath and tried to focus on anything other than the pain, but the only other things he could feel were extreme heat that switched to freezing in seconds, sounds that sliced his mind in half and a deep ache in his bones.  
But breathing helped. Slowly it became less unbearable.  
“feeling better yet?”  
Hiccup opened his mouth to answer but his throat hurt as he spoke and all he could get out was a groan.  
“I’ll take that as a no then,” he heard Jael mutter. The sound pinging against his skull faded. His fingers tingled.  
Slowly the sounds faded and the ache went with it. by the time Jael sat on the couch across from him it was distant.  
“can I have that back please?” Jael gestured to the thing she gave him. Now Hiccup finally looked at it, a dark rock of some kind, a flat teardrop shape about as long as his finger. He gave it back and she put it on a counter, messed about in the kitchen for a while.  
“what the hell was that?”  
“crazy, magic nonsense,” Jael explained as she sat back on the couch with two mugs, “drink this.”  
Hiccup took the offered mug and stared at the liquid, it smelled sweet and vaguely flowery, “I’m serious, what was it? and how’d you make it stop?”  
Jael sighed and took a long sip of the drink, “drink it, it’ll make you feel better.”  
He rolled his eyes but took a sip, “How’d Verlin know you could help?”  
“gods you ask a lot of questions.”  
“I’m sorry.”  
“it’s okay,” Jael sat her mug on the low table between them, “keep it up, inquisition is a mark of intelligence.” She rubbed at her eyes and sighed, “Verlin knew because he’s seen it before.”  
“right,” Hiccup finally bothered to look at the room. The couches facing each other lead onto a hall with a staircase and a kitchen. The benches and shelves were covered with plants and books and jars. No surface was left untouched.  
“whatever blessing Pluto gave you finally caught up. It was a lot of power at one time and… sort of put your body in a kind of shock.” She ran a hand through her shoulder length hair, “I’ve been there. It’s why I keep some of those things around.” She gestured to the bench she had put the rock on, “they can store energy and, if done right, you can take it out for later use.”  
Hiccup blinked, “you have experience with this god stuff?”  
Jael rolled her eyes, “not the ones you know. Norse, Roman, they work differently to what I’m used to, but they’re similar enough on principal.”  
“Egyptian?”  
“yeah that’s the one,” she took another sip of her drink, “don’t get me wrong I’m not a demigod or anything, or a champion. But I… study magic and the path of gods.”  
“like a witch?”  
“witchcraft is about harnessing the natural magic around you through plants and the moon and stuff. I harness the power of specific gods domains,” She explained, “I’m more like a warlock who dabbles in sorcery.”  
“and you didn’t mention this before? The first time I said I had a god’s blessing?”  
“I just met you. Also, I figured it wouldn’t be… this.” she gestured to him, “more like a ceremonial kind of well wishes blessing, less of a,” she made a pouty face and spoke in a croaky voice “I bestow upon thee my power, go, do unto the earth my godly will.”  
“Ew,” Hiccup laughed, “Pluto isn’t a wrinkly old dude.”  
Jael cackled, “whatever,” she took another sip of her drink then got up and walked to the kitchen, “pendant should be done.”  
“pendant?”  
“yeah, the stone thing,” she picked it up off the bench, “just some sigils and things, final touches.” She put the pendant on a chord and tossed it to him before taking her seat back, “you can get magic back out whenever and no one else can touch it. be careful though, that much stuff will crash into you like a flood.”  
“and can you tell me how to do that?” he asked as he slipped the chord over his head, the stone hung right under his collar, just cold enough to be felt through his shirt.  
“sure, because I needed an apprentice,” Jael sighed and got up, wiping her hands on her pants and taking a thick leather-bound book from a nearby shelf and dropping it on the table between them, “alright, stand up, shut up and listen up”

The afternoon sky was bright orange and pink, Hiccup figured maybe he could go for a fly before dinner was out at the mess hall.  
He was carrying one of Jael’s books, the first one she had filled on Roman magic, as well as an amulet that would apparently stop bad dreams if he stuck it under his pillow. He couldn’t see why he’d need it, he’d never had an issue with nightmares before, but Jael stressed that they would become an issue if he didn’t have a protection of some sort.  
“and remember, don’t go doing anything stupid. If Pluto’s given you any kind of useable power it’s best to let it present itself naturally,” Jael reminded him for probably the fifth time since they’d left her apartment.  
“I’m not stupid, Jael,” Hiccup chuckled, “if any scary demons barge into the room I’ll come looking for you.”  
“ha _ha_ , demons are serious business.” She shoved a finger in his face.  
Hiccup rolled his eyes and trudged up the stairs. Through the open door he could see Atticus and Verlin playing some card game.  
“hey bozos,” Jael greeted as Hiccup put the book and amulet on his bunk, “scam any market-stall owners today?”  
“rude,” Verlin said, acting wounded, “just because they sell us stuff for cheap doesn’t mean we goaded them into it.”  
“yeah, sure,” she gave Atticus a strong look, “you look after hiccup.”  
“yes ma’am.”  
“I don’t need looking after,” Hiccup said, arms crossed.  
“sure," she turned around and started out the door, “I’m gonna find a pub before the mess hall opens.”  
The boys chuckled and went back to their game, but Hiccup still had some questions to ask. He followed Jael and met her at the foot of the stairs.  
“why do you know all this stuff?”  
“what?”  
“the magic and the gods and the ‘how-to’ stuff. Why do you know it all? How?”  
Jael sighed through her nose and looked at the sky, her shoes, Toothless sleeping on the porch, anywhere but Hiccup’s face.  
She smiled thinly, “when Verlin and I lived in Egypt… we…” she leaned against the rail of the stairs, “I was going to be an acolyte at one of the libraries in the city. Keep studying all this nonsense and more. Maybe be a healer or a scholar, I don’t know, but…”  
She was looking at the grass, dug the toe of her sandals into the dirt.  
She sighed, “the dragon traffickers were a big problem there at the time, I think they still are.” She finally looked him in the eye, “they let them loose one day, burned half the city down like that,” she snapped her fingers, “gone.”  
“I’m sorry.” Hiccup wasn’t surprised, not at all. He was, however, shocked that Jael could so readily accept dragons as harmless after seeing that- because the way she spoke about it told him clearly that she had watched it all.  
“it’s okay.” She jerked her chin towards the barracks where Verlin was, “he was here at the time, with our father. He always preferred Rome. but when the trappers became so dangerous, Da wanted me out. he and mum already lived in the capitol anyway. I was happy to leave, it had all been ruined for me after the fires.”  
“but you kept up your studies.”  
“yeah.” She sighed, “yeah.”  
Hiccup fidgeted with his shirt and opened his mouth to say something, but he honestly didn’t know what to say.  
“I’m telling you this,” Jael started, finally looking him in his eyes again, “because I’ve seen your confusion and worry over me and Verlin, with how we drink and act. Trust me, I know it’s bad. I’ve pretty much ruined him thanks to his inability to see anything I do as wrong.”  
“I don’t-“  
“yes you do.”  
Hiccup sighed, “sorry.”  
“you’re worried, I get it. don’t though, not about us.” She patted him on the shoulder, “we look after ourselves. That’s what family does.”  
“it’s okay to get help from other people as well, you know.”  
“yeah,” she shoved her hands in her pockets, “but not right now.”  
And she left. Hiccup went for a flight. They went to the mess hall for dinner and Jael pretended she hadn’t even mentioned anything. Which was rather ironic, because it just made him worry about her more. He’d known these people a little over a week, and here he was, fussing over them like a mother hen.  
And he didn’t worry about Berk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so I don't know if i'll ever manage to actually include this piece of knowledge in the story organically, but Verlin has silver hair, like bright and shining silver hair, caused by magic. it's cause his sister accidentally magic-ed it. she was trying to make it temporarily the colour of an old man as a prank, it got stuck like that forever- they'd have been like 9 at the time probably.


	5. The Reaper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I think you know what happens in this chapter, kinda filler till the next chapter, which has a big time skip cause I don't want to spend forever writing about Hiccup training and people finding dragons and all that. I would like to finish writing this at some point.

The day after Hiccup’s grand introduction to magic he was stuck teaching more people about dragons. It wasn’t necessarily dull, but when compared he’d rather be figuring out if he had crazy magic powers or telekinesis.   
And he wasn’t just stuck for the one day, it was a whole week. At the end of which he had to attend another senate meeting where they finally decided to accept him into the fourth legion. And then he was stuck with official training with a bunch of other soon-to-be soldiers. Soon enough he’d been in the capitol for a month and he was still in completely unknown territory when it came to this stupid god blessing.   
He had to agree with Atticus though, the trainers definitely didn’t appreciate any form of attitude from their students. And the way they taught was a little too similar to what he dealt with on Berk. Luckily for him, Atticus caught him going over the forms he’d taught him and had started doing training at night with him. Aeliana sometimes showed up to help out as well. And according to everyone else’s expectations he was going to be stuck here for another three months at least before he would be allowed to become an official centurion in the legion.   
The thing that annoyed Hiccup most was that his motley crew of friends refused to head back to their camp till he’d be coming with them. They said it was because they were waiting for their chance to finally get a dragon training lesson but Hiccup was quite sure it was because they were enjoying their chance to dodge work.  
Or, there was the chance they wanted to hang around him because they enjoyed his company- a ridiculous idea that came to him one night- but that was nigh on impossible. Definitely.  
But he learnt all the stories. How Verlin once got drunk and sold all his clothes on accident except those on his back and had to borrow from Atticus for a week. How Aeliana’s whole family were soldiers and she was the most recent in a long line of Praetors and officers. How Atticus met Verlin at one of his father’s parties and nearly spilled his glass on him. How Aeliana hated one of the trainers so much that she dumped him in the sewers and framed one of the senator’s kids. How Charlotte once drank a senior Praetor under the table and that was how she got enough money- independent of her father- to buy herself a place in the city outside the fourth and fifth legions’ campsite. How Jael once saved Atticus’ ass from a bunch of magic monster things.   
And he told them his stories. The ‘wonderful’ adventures in Viking dragon training. The actually wonderful experience of befriending Toothless. The horrible pranks of the twins and the even worse ones that Daggur would pull on him when he was around. Working in Gobber’s forge. The other teens and their ridiculous hijinks- they even managed to drag out of him the fact that he had a small crush on Astrid. Conversation was easy and they filled a month with tall tales and jokes.   
And at the end of the month they got the chance to make their own story.  
Johan sent a Terrible Terror ahead of time, the ability to do so something that took Hiccup forever to explain to him. It took him the entire month to figure out a safe course to the Roman capitol, even with the map Hiccup managed to find for him. It wasn’t too much trouble for him to make sure the dockhands knew a Viking ship would be approaching and on the day he finally docked Hiccup was there to meet him, having weaselled his way out of training for the day.   
“Johan!” he greeted, he didn’t realise how stressed he was till he saw a familiar face, “aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.”  
“Master Hiccup,” Johan stood mid-deck, “there is a giant mountain with a beast off the coast that I just barely missed,” he warned under his breath.  
“right,” he blinked, “so you didn’t have too much trouble then?”  
“not too much, no. I do have a few things to tell you about, but first, I still have goods to sell, and later I’d like to know where I can get some food in this country.”

Johan had to deal with a bunch of annoying superficial crap so that he could get a temporary license to trade. The idea of policing trade was hilarious to Hiccup but the officials went on about the possibility of people selling poisonous stuff and sewing chaos so he couldn’t be bothered to put up much of a fight on the matter. Hiccup had to stick around so Johan could actually put it to use.   
Switching from Latin to Norse was weird. It seemed to happen subconsciously depending on which language someone spoke to him in but actively switching took a bit more concentration. He’d spoken to a few others who were bilingual- the twins were two of them- and from how it seemed that wasn’t exactly a common issue to have. He chalked it up to his knowledge of Latin coming from blessing and not study.  
A lot more people than Hiccup expected visited Johan’s ship. They all seemed pretty intrigued by the fact that he had goods from somewhere none of them had visited before. By lunch Hiccup was finally able to catch up with his friends, Johan came along saying he had something to tell them all.  
Being the middle ground and translating was getting annoying but it payed off rather quickly.   
“I’m sorry, treasure? Like, x-marks-the-spot, pirate burial, shiver me timbers, land-ho treasure?”  
“was half of that even Latin?” Hiccup blinked as Verlin stared at Johan in excitement.  
“what did he say?” Johan asked.  
“uh, he’s excited.”  
“tell us about the ship, you said it’s haunted?” Aeliana frowned, stray dark hair fraying in front of her eyes, “by ghosts or mythical creatures?”  
“no one’s sure,” Johan shrugged after Hiccup relayed the question, “but they say it’s riddled with traps. No one’s managed to get to the treasure.”  
“and where are the ships?” Atticus asked, “the archipelago?”  
“yes, which is why I figured you might not be interested. But I’ve heard this treasure has history with the trappers.”  
That definitely got their attention.  
“you got a map?”

The sheer amount of persuasion that went into getting their military managers to let them go on a quest was immense. For a moment Hiccup didn’t think they would let them go. In the end they allowed it provided that they take complete responsibility for it as a campaign. Which meant that the trappers in the north were now officially their problem with a lot of suggestion that Rome and Egypt were included. They couldn’t find it in themselves to care that they’d just had years-worth of work dumped on them just because they wanted to go after some cursed ship yard.   
Thanks to having a solid path planned it only took a week and a half to sail back North, it would’ve been shorter if they hadn’t had to stop to make camp but Johan’s ship didn’t have enough beds for them all. And Charlotte may have gotten sea sick a few times but no one was blaming her for the extra travel time.  
The shipyard was blanketed with smoke and as Johan maneuvered through it ships rose up around them. ports and sterns rose out of the water like teeth.  
“well,” Jael craned her neck to train her eyes on a mast, her dark hair seemed inky in the shadows, “this does scream haunted graveyard of the desolate.”  
“why are we doing this again?” Atticus asked, eyes wide as he stared at a decrepit mermaid figurehead, moss and lichen clung to it and grime dripped down like everlasting tears, í think we may have miscalculated.”  
“because the treasure has to do with the trappers, who are now our problem, and we could use every piece of foreknowledge as possible.” Aeliana explained, voice strong and unwavering, but her head still whipped around at the sound of a ship’s boom drumming against its mast.  
Hiccup stopped himself from getting too anxious by thinking of how ridiculous they all looked. With red capes and full armour. The only thing that could make it worse is if they were all wearing those ridiculous helmets with the red tufts. He was lucky he wasn’t an official soldier yet, granting him the ability to just wear some basic grieves and normal clothes. Although he could do with the warmth of a cape.  
“we’re coming up on the ships with treasure, there’s just a few and they surround the fatal one.” Johan explained.  
“this heavily trapped ship, what’s on it?” Aeliana asked and Hiccup translated.  
“no one knows, in fact everyone’s quite sure that there isn’t anything on it except definitive death.” Johan said, voice quivering, “Master Hiccup, I know it may seem selfish but I must ask that I be left aboard my ship while you and your friends investigate. This is much too… frightening for me.”  
“don’t worry, you’ve no obligation to join us, just stay aboard and ready the ship to leave when we’re done.” Charlotte said, Johan smiled his thanks.   
“we’re here.” Johan pulled up next to one of the few ships with the right amount of its bow out of the water, “all of them are rather close, you should be able to manoeuvre across to all of them.”  
Johan tied his hull to the ship and lay down a plank across. They all walked across with ease.  
“let’s split up, Verlin and I’ll take the-“ Atticus was cut off when he stepped and fell through.  
“Atticus!” they huddled around the whole, careful of remaining planks of rotten wood.  
“I’m good!” he winced and beckoned down, “get down here Ver, I think I see a few gilded chests.”  
Verlin sighed and gave Hiccup a tired look, “work, work, work, huh?” then he jumped down, careful to miss Atticus as he clambered to his feet.  
“we’ll take down here!” Atticus called up, “you guys go on ahead, we’ll find a way back up.”  
“alright,” Charlotte huffed, “Jael come with me, let’s check out the captain’s quarters up there. Aeliana, Hiccup, maybe head over to the next boat.”  
“cool, we get the parkour route,” Hiccup looked over to the pulpit of the ship, it met up with the Stern of the next ship pretty well, “after you, Milady.”  
“pfft,” Aeliana flicked her cape out of the way as she started walking, “don’t start with that.”  
“I thought it was only proper with someone of your status,” hiccup smirked.  
“I’m a praetor, Hiccup. My family’s knighthoods and history with that business doesn’t affect me.” Aeliana ducked under the mainsail.  
“I just think it’s cool,” Hiccup laughed, “I mean, your family works for years as guards to lords and dukes and you just want to be a soldier?”  
“no one said I wanted to be a soldier,” she chuckled, “it’s just what’s done in my family. It’s knighthood or military. I preferred it to being a pompous asshole’s guard.”  
“oh fun,” they reached the Pulpit and Hiccup stared at the gap between the side of the bow and the Stern.  
“I’ll go first, then help you over.”  
“oh how chivalrous of you,” Hiccup smirked.  
“stop.”  
“no, it’s funny.”  
Aeliana sighed, “alright, get it all out on this mission.”  
“yes, ma’am,” Hiccup laughed.  
Aeliana hopped over the rail and crouched on the edge. She jumped and landed right next to the tiller, hand reaching for the rope that connected it to the wheel as she lost balance. She righted herself and turned.  
Hiccup followed, she grabbed him by the bicep as he landed and the two almost toppled.   
“you good?”  
“perfect,” hiccup smiled, “let’s go look for ghosts.”  
“don’t you want Toothless to come along?”  
“it’ll be fine, he’s not interested anyway. He’s napping on Johan’s halyard. Let’s go.”

They found several chests of treasure but nothing burst out and said ‘boo’ so really it was rather disappointing. They dragged some things to the halyard anyway, knowing their bosses would definitely appreciate money over nothing. Hiccup looked into the gloom, analysing all the ships. Their positions seemed oddly purposeful.  
“what’s wrong?” Aeliana asked, standing next to him.  
“these ships, don’t they seem a little…”  
“concentric? Well-placed? Especially for a ship graveyard.”  
“yeah,” Hiccup squinted as he tried to make out a shape in the fog, “you see that?”  
He could hear drops of water and a mainsail flapping. A dark shadow sat in the middle of the ships. They were guarding it.   
“that would be the booby trapped one.”  
“most likely,” Aeliana sighed.  
“looks rather interesting.”  
“yep.”  
“definitely dangerous.”  
“very.”  
“we could die if we went there.”  
“very possibly.”  
They gave each other a look.  
“want to go?”  
“oh yeah,” Aeliana grinned.

Hiccup called over Toothless and he dropped them on the ship. As they flew over they saw the name of the ship painted on the bow, flaking off and mould covered, but legible.  
“the reaper,” Hiccup said as he examined the ship, “classy.”  
“we have to be careful, Johan warned us about the traps.” Aeliana said as Toothless eyed the mast with disinterest.  
“yeah,” Hiccup analysed the sail, “this definitely isn’t from the archipelago. The carvings, the design on the sail, I’ve never seen it before.”  
Toothless sniffed at a cage, finally seeming just as anxious as the others.  
“It’s okay bud, it’s just an empty cage.”  
“it’s not made of any metal I’ve seen before,” Aeliana frowned, “you?”  
“no,” he stared at the ship, “this is definitely not a Viking’s ship. Whoever these trappers are, they’re from somewhere else.”  
“that’s comforting.”  
the two started towards the door and toothless crowed.  
“what’s wrong Toothless? Don’t you want to see below?” Hiccup kept going towards the hatch as Toothless whined.  
Aeliana tripped. A rope caught her foot and was dragging her off the ship.  
“toothless!”  
He swooped in and shot the rope, picking her up and dropping her back by the door.  
“good job bud,” hiccup patted his head, “let’s go, no one goes to this much trouble to protect an empty ship.”  
They walked in and Hiccup jumped as a bear trap wrapped itself around his metal leg.  
“benefits, huh?”  
“hilarious.” Hiccup gestured to the trap, “Toothless, would you mind?” he shot the metal.  
“let’s go,” Aeliana said, starting down the hallway. Toothless warbled and stared into the cages that lined the hall.  
“dragon bones,” Hiccup murmured, “sorry bud.”  
“gods,” Aeliana said, looking into the cages, “these guys are sickos. Maybe we should get out of here.”  
Aeliana stepped and arrows shot from the walls.  
“change of plan, commander’s quarters!” she ordered and the two bolted down the hall.  
“get the door bud!” toothless shot it down.  
And the two slipped into the room.  
“what is this thing?” Aeliana said, picking up a cylinder from the Commander’s desk.  
“whatever it is, it’s important. We can’t leave it here for trappers to finally find, it can’t be good for dragons.”  
“aye, agreed. Let’s go.”  
Hiccup was just thinking how easy it was when a giant axe dropped from the ceiling.   
“run!”  
They ran down the hall, spikes shot from the floor and they jumped. Toothless grabbed them, the two clung on as he sped down the hall. Arrows shot from the walls as they dashed out the door.  
“let’s get out of here. Back to Johan’s ship.” Aeliana said.  
“agreed, I’ve had enough of this place already.”

As they sailed back they got a good look at the cylinder.  
“so do we have any idea what this thing is?” Atticus said, “Jael, any ideas?”  
“it doesn’t have any kind of symbols of spells or even magical residue,” Jael said as she turned it in her hands, “if it’s magic it’s a kind I’ve never seen or heard of. Which is almost impossible.”  
“yeah, I doubt it’s magic. If this is a trappers heirloom of some kind it’s probably a weapon,” Charlotte said, “maybe it emits some kind of sound that is harmful?”  
“I don’t know,” Hiccup sighed, “it doesn’t remind me of anything the Vikings knew about and it doesn’t look like something that could harm a dragon.”   
“we’ll figure it out. the amount of scientists and scholars in Rome, someone’s gotta have an idea.” Verlin said as he stretched, “maybe we should start thinking about how we’re gonna deal with this new campaign we’ve had loaded on us.”  
“yeah, if we want to take out the trappers up here we’re gonna need to have a plan. Do some recon on them. Set up some headquarters,” Atticus said, then gasped, “we get to see what you’re home’s like, Hiccup!”  
“we’re not getting anywhere near Berk,” Hiccup said, “are you sure you’re allowed to stay out of Rome that long? You’re Praetors.”  
“yeah but it’s our campaign and we’re not in war or anything. As long as we don’t boast about how we’re leaving our camp without praetors it should be fine.” Charlotte said.  
“yeah, the legionnaires can pick up the slack easily.” Aeliana took the dragon eye from Jael to study it herself, “besides, I think I saw a pretty good island not too far off that’d be great for a headquarters.”  
“well,” Hiccup took out the map he’d gotten off of Johan, the Archipelago as well as they knew it, “we best get to work then.”


	6. The Three Year Skip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> three years have passed, time for some realisations and some promotions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so if you didn't read the prior chapter note, I wrote like thousands of words of this fic and realised... I'd switched centurions and legionnaires. but you know, I can't find it in myself to care, because no one comes to fan fic to learn about ancient militaries.  
> oh well... Uncle Ric is the only person who'd be disappointed, and he's not gonna read this trash.

Hiccup drew up his hood against the cool breeze, clasping his hands around the cup of calda for some much-wanted warmth. He’d been in and out of the Archipelago- with a prejudice for staying _out_ \- for three years and he’d already lost his ability to be immune to the chill.  
Toothless warbled next to him, puffing up and releasing a sigh of hot air. The dragon curled his tail closer around Hiccup, letting it dangle slightly off the edge of the rock.  
He was on watch tonight, keeping an eye out for the last of the dragon trappers scuttling through the archipelago. He and his friends had been going on missions- and the rare campaign- to rid Rome and its neighbours of dragon-murdering filth since he showed up and started teaching people how to befriend dragons. Lately it looked like they’d finally managed to succeed. But even still, Hiccup was vigilant. Vigo and Ryker had been difficult and trying opponents, he wouldn’t be surprised if they pulled some final trick from their hats as a last-word.   
But even still, with the happiness that came with stopping them came sadness. The only reason he still visited the north was for these missions defending dragons and, rarely, people. Could he really finally say goodbye when all this was over?  
He and his friends had built a temporary base of operations for these missions, nicknaming it ‘the edge’, and had found it to be the perfect spot. _Their_ spot. If anything it would make a great vacation location when they finally wouldn’t be coming back for working.   
It was his last link to the archipelago. Could he really let it all go?  
A shadow shifted to his left, along the rock wall this watchtower was built into. Draconic in nature, something flying past. More likely friend than foe but Hiccup couldn’t take that chance. His ponderings would have to wait even longer.  
He pulled himself up to his feet- well, foot and intricately made appendage- and peered into the darkness, resting his hand on the pommel of his sword sheathed at his side.   
A dragon had attached itself to the rock face, there was a slight turn in the rock where it rested, he could only just see it.  
Toothless shifted and stood as well. Hiccup didn’t know to call out, threaten or just watch. He decided it best to let the dragon come to him. Toothless sniffed and growled, it sounded like he was picking up something strange.   
Change of plan.   
“hey, you can come closer, I won’t hurt you,” he assured the dragon, letting his hand drift away from his sword, “are you injured?”  
The dragon shifted but didn’t move closer.   
“it’s okay, I can help.”  
It still didn’t move, but something else did.   
The hair on the back of Hiccup’s neck stood on end, he heard a slide against rock, just barely audible. It was enough.   
Hiccup whirled around, sword out in seconds with an audible hiss, only to be met with a staff.  
Toothless growled, keeping an eye on the dragon at Hiccup’s back that had shifted closer.   
“who are you?” Hiccup grit out, staring into a strange mask with curled horns and small slits for the eyes.   
The attacker just pushed him back with their staff, swinging for his head. Hiccup used his momentum to dodge the blow and feinted for the attacker’s side, aggravated when they blocked the real attack to the shoulder. They were quick.  
The attacker gave a flurry of blows but was restricted by the close quarters. This section of the watchtower was hidden into the rock along the side of the edge. Below them was the sea, the ledge they fought along was small. Much too small for the long-staff they wielded.  
Hiccup fended off the blows with his gladius, barely noticing Toothless ward off the dragon with a restrained plasma blast. He herded the attacker closer to the wall where he could use his weapon to the advantage.  
Hiccup pushed them back a few steps but before he could follow them they used their moment of pause to twirl their staff and knock it against the floor, letting out a melodic sound that reminded Hiccup of a dragon’s scales clicking against themselves… and something else.   
It reminded him of the sound the red death made.  
Surprised Toothless turned, not controlled but definitely shocked. Hiccup wasn’t much better. The attacker used their moment to attack again, this time their dragon was able to make it onto the ledge as well and quickly pounced on Toothless. Hiccup glanced for just a second but it was enough, the attacker used it to their advantage and swept his legs from beneath him.  
It was ridiculous, though, they had no hope against a night fury-  
The dragons went tumbling over the side, the strange attacker’s dragon spiralling up into the side after extricating itself from whatever death-grip Toothless had likely had on it.   
Hiccup tried to get up but the attacker shoved their staff into his face. This was ridiculous, he’d practically let them win because of his stupid hesitation.  
“my dragon can’t fly on his own he’ll drown!” Hiccup yelled, pleading with every god he could that this attacker had some kind of empathy.  
They did not.  
He was seconds away from continuing the fight when another thought occurred to him; who was this person? He needed answers. They seemed to have befriended a dragon as well, there was no way they’d actually leave Toothless to die. Maybe the waiting game was worth playing here.  
Several more dragons landed along the ledge, one grabbed him by the shoulders and took off as the attacker stepped onto their dragon. Regardless of hope, Hiccup screamed to them of Toothless, and still they did not stop to save his friend.

The dragon dropped him to the ground in a giant cave of ice, the whole place was dark and cold but regardless he couldn’t muster up the emotion to care.   
“we have to go back for my dragon!” he yelled into the cave, knowing full well the attacker was nearby.   
Around him, hiding in the gloom, were more dragons. He reached for that shadowy power Pluto had granted him, taking in his surroundings. He couldn’t hold onto it long with his mind so all over the place, but he had long enough to survey his surroundings.   
The place was a maze of ice, he gathered that much just from the trip in, but now he’d been dunked in one of its antechambers he could see full well how easy to get lost it would be.  
A dragon nipped at his heels and he stumbled back.  
He slipped a cylinder from his belt and bent it across his thigh, dull-green light bloomed from the edge then a flame sizzled to life. he waved it in front of him hypnotically, letting the dragons focus on it.  
“I won’t hurt you,” he whispered, crouching in the circle of dragons that surrounded him and let them come to him. The snout of the dragon was a hairsbreadth away from his palm when the attacker shifted, crouched on a rock not far away. The dragons parted to let them through then sealed the two together.  
“who are you?” Hiccup asked, hand drifting to his sheath were his sword should have been. Unluckily he’d dropped it when he’d been lifted by the dragon back at the edge. “are you some sort of vigilante?”  
They twirled their staff and slammed it against the floor, the dragons opened their mouths and lit the room up with fire.   
“the better question is who are you?” they asked.  
 _‘So you can talk.’_ Hiccup though bitterly to himself.  
“I asked first.” He said.   
“I am the defender of dragons.” They answered.   
“you’ve been doing a pretty shoddy job. no offence.” Hiccup drawled.  
“you are not from here,” they accused, “you and your friends are Romans. What are you doing this far north? And involving yourselves with the Archipelago’s problems?”   
“we’re defending the dragons. From Vigo and his dragon traffickers and trappers.” He answered, “you may want to give me a good reason for all this because you just dumped my dragon in the ocean to die without a thought and I’m not patient with people who harm dragons on a good day. Hurting my friend makes me a little twitchy.”  
“fair enough.” They grunted, signalling once more with their staff.  
From a crevice in the ice a dragon flew down, carrying Toothless. It dropped him next to Hiccup then joined the crowd of dragons watching.  
Uncaring for judgement Hiccup threw his arms around Toothless as his dragon leapt for him.  
“Toothless! Oh gods, I thought I lost you bud, no I’m fine don’t worry,” his words rushed out as his dragon sniffed him and curled around him.  
All the while the stranger watched on, head tilted in curiosity.   
“how did the Romans learn Norse?” they asked.  
Hiccup froze, not having realised they’d been conversing in Norse. He had some trouble with that thanks to Pluto. He was perfectly capable of controlling when he spoke in which language, but sometimes he would subconsciously switch. It was the only issue he’d had with being bi-lingual which was annoying because it wasn’t even the kind of issue one would usually have.   
“long story,” he answered.   
“who are you?” the stranger asked again, a threat in their voice, “I am just as impatient as you. I’ve been dealing with Vigo as well, I don’t need Romans trying to attack the dragons here. They are under mine and the kings protection.”  
“we don’t fight dragons, they’re our friends!” Hiccup defended.  
The stranger stepped closer and Toothless growled a warning, “I see.”  
“you don’t need to fight us,” he specified, “my friends and I are trying to stop all these people from hurting dragons.”  
They paused for a moment, surveying him.  
“you didn’t answer my question,” they said, “who are you?”  
“no one you’d recognise,” he said.  
“try me.”  
Hiccup had to suppress a laugh. This strange vigilante dragon-person had recognised him as Roman, surely they didn’t think they could name every dragon riding soldier in Rome? This was ridiculous.   
They stalked closer, ignoring Toothless’s growls, instead pulling some fancy hand-trick that caused him to fall asleep. Hiccup’s hand twitched towards the dagger at his hip, but before he could unsheathe it the stranger had come close to his face and he was backing up, fumbling for a decision. To be frank he had no idea what was going on, this was uncharted territory. No one else in the archipelago was a dragon rider, there were the wing maidens and Mala’s people, that was it. that was what he’d always thought. Who was this person?  
His indecisiveness had him stepping back under the stranger’s studying glare. He stumbled as he reached the edge of the dragon circle and in his moment of stillness the stranger got a good look at him. Launching back like they’d been burned by being so close.   
_“Hiccup?”_  
What?

It was morning before anyone noticed Hiccup was missing.   
Not for lack of caring, but they hadn’t planned a watch schedule or agreed to change shifts at any point, deciding they would be perfectly safe. Although Aeliana may have snuck out to do a border-check, and Charlotte definitely flew a few laps around the island around mid-night.   
But it wasn’t till everyone was in the main room eating breakfast that Atticus pointed out Hiccup seemed to have slept in.  
“he likely pulled a watch last night, probably fell asleep at one of the towers, he’ll be here in a bit.” Aeliana said, rubbing some stray sleep from her eyes.   
He was not there in a bit.   
It was Atticus’s turn to do the washing up that day and as he finished up he glanced out of the room to find that Hiccup had not come by, as evident by his untouched plate of food they had left for him.  
Atticus flew to the watchtowers looking for him and after that proved fruitless he visited all the other spots the group used to watch over the island and keep look out. Hiccup wasn’t there.   
It was when he went to check Hiccup’s cabin that Aeliana caught him looking and immediately grew worried when Atticus told her Hiccup didn’t seem to be anywhere on the island.   
By mid-day they had checked everywhere and were worried.  
“we need to track him, he could be in danger. Maybe Vigo snuck in and captured him?” Verlin said pacing the length of the dome, Jael fidgeted with the map of the edge, painfully aware of the situation thanks to being on a record of sober days.   
“what if he’s just gone for an especially long flight?” Charlotte suggested, “we’ve all done it.”  
“it’s been hours,” Aeliana said, “Hiccup would leave a note.”  
“maybe Mala sent a message for help, or the wing-maidens.” Jael suggested, obviously trying to persuade herself to believe it.  
“no he’d wake us,” Atticus said, “he’s missing, there’s nothing else to it. we need to track him down and find him, he could be hurt or in trouble. He can fend for himself just fine, but Vigo has proven to be crafty.”  
“agreed,” Aeliana said, “let’s get something of his from his cabin and let Spike catch a trail.”  
“wow what an invasion of privacy, I’m gone for a few hours and you want to rifle through my stuff? Not cool.”  
The group looked to the front of the dome, Aeliana’s hand flying to a sword, and found Hiccup standing there with Toothless as if there was no problem at all. Behind him was a stranger and another dragon- a Stormcutter by the looks.  
“Hiccup! Where have you been?” Atticus threw his hands in the air in exasperation, and Aeliana shot him a glare.  
“it is a seriously long story, and you will not believe it,” he said.  
“try us,” Charlotte said, arms crossed.   
Hiccup gestured to the stranger, “guys I’d like you to meet Valka, she’s been fighting Vigo as well.” The stranger nodded a greeting and removed their helmet, “she’s also my mother.” 

That night Hiccup could not sleep.   
He lay staring at the ceiling of his cabin thinking in circles.   
His mother was alive. Alive and _a dragon rider_. Eighteen years she’d been running and flying around being a crazy vigilante dragon lady and he’d thought she was dead. His heart ached at the thought. She said she’d thought it best to stay away. That Berk couldn’t change. He could understand that to a degree but it didn’t change the fact that she’d _left him_. A newly born babe and she’d just _left him_ on Berk without a thought.  
Well, he couldn’t assume that, but that’s how it felt.  
What would his life have been like if she’d been there? If she’d been able to support him? How much pain and loneliness could he have avoided?  
He wanted to cast aside the sadness, she was here now and he couldn’t change the past but there was still a lingering ache in his chest.   
He focused on his breathing, it was getting harder. There was a lump in his throat he couldn’t chase away and a weight on his body that pushed the air from his lungs. If he focused on his breath maybe he could stop thinking of his mother, of his past. Maybe he could get some damn sleep.   
His breath rushed in and out of him and he entered the best form of meditation he could when his whole body wanted to seize with sobs. If he relaxed and focused well enough maybe he could reach that power of Pluto’s he could barely wield, maybe it could help him gain some wayward wisdom about all this.   
But the cold feeling of that power slipped from his grasp every second he reached for it and sleep ran from his fingertips.   
Toothless warbled, bringing him out of his trance. The dragon was worried for him, could feel the tumultuous emotions raging in his mind.   
“I’m okay bud,” he sighed, sitting up, “just can’t sleep.”  
Toothless chirruped again, twisting on his slab to leave some room beside him where Hiccup could sit.  
With a sigh Hiccup took the invitation, carrying his pillow over to his friend and snuggling against his warm scales. He had tried to figure this out with everyone else, but the advice everyone else gave made no headway with his emotions. Once more it was Toothless giving him the only working coping mechanism. Or at least the only one that allowed him some rest.  
He fell asleep to the sound of Toothless’s rhythmic breath, letting it lull him into something close to calm.

Hiccup _hated_ feasts.  
They were pompous and frivolous and full of unnecessary traditions and rules and mannerisms.   
And _dress codes._  
He just barely fought off a scowl as he fidgeted with the clasp of his cape- deep maroon red with simple black filigree along the left shoulder, signalling his new-found status as a Roman legionnaire. He spotted Aeliana’s sideways glance as she noticed his movement, a brief hint of a smirk at his expense. He almost rolled his eyes.  
But he _couldn’t._   
Because he was on display right now, Jael at his right and Verlin his left. He wished, briefly, that for once he’d be able to visit the capitol without spending the majority of his time at some parade or stuck-up party.   
But _no_ , being appointed legionnaire was a _celebration_ and a _great honour_ and deserved momentous festivity and extreme expenses that were entirely unnecessary that went towards a ridiculous feast purely made for up-starts and rich-folk to flaunt the latest fashions- all this explained in a monologue that had gone on for some time, now, from Detrius and Fillian, the first legion’s Praetors who were therefore hosting the event. Although that last part may not have been a part of the speech.   
Realistically, Detrius and Fillian weren’t bad soldiers or people, but they were from some of those rich-folk and consequently liked to follow traditions to a T.   
Moreover, their shared speech was causing him to stand, in full armour, stock still and at attention, for a good hour under the afternoon sun. he had many other things he’d rather be doing. Top of the list was talking to his mother in the north, something he hadn’t had long enough to do past the day they’d spent together before they’d had to leave.  
They finally finished up their speech, pausing to bask in the thunderous applause of the fraction of people living in the roman capitol who had got here fast enough to stand in the main city-square. Hiccup didn’t know how they could project their voices across such a wide area, but they made do.   
The platform he stood on with his fellow soldiers held their respective Praetors, standing on the other end. Detrius and Fillian gestured them over and stood back from the edge as Aeliana and Charlotte came forward.   
Aeliana stood in front of Hiccup and Verlin, Charlotte in front of Jael. Hiccup fumbled through the whole process of saluting and clasping forearms and taking the red linen scarf with the roman empire’s insignia and tying it under the shoulder armour with the symbol visible where it belonged, awkwardly accepting his helmet back from Aeliana. If it was any consolidation his friends seemed to be just as awkward as him, if a little less tense.   
And then they stood side by side and absorbed the applause of the crowd and Detrius and Fillian welcomed them as well and _finally_ they walked off the stage. 

Three years living in Rome and Hiccup was already a legionnaire.  
The idea was almost hilarious to him. He could barely hold a sword not long ago and now he was throwing people in the dirt in seconds. He’d sped through strategy faster than any of his fellow trainees, and Latin was far easier to properly learn than he’d expected. He’d went on only enough campaigns to count on his fingers, but even still he’d been called into the barracks meeting room three months ago and Aeliana had announced, happily, that he was being promoted.   
Atticus was thrilled, he credited it to his expert swordsmanship lessons. Something Hiccup would admit he was grateful for. Atticus was only a year older than him, but his family had taught him since he could hold a sword. To catch up Hiccup hadn’t got over four hours rest a day since he’d started training, and they usually weren’t consecutive. But it was worth it.  
And now he was celebrating the fruits of his labour as he and his friends flew to their favourite spot near their barracks. The feast they’d been required to attend was great, but the real fun didn’t start till they left the capitol and got back to their legions’ assigned province. He’d spent the day dealing with the rest of the fourth and the fifth, which was extremely emotionally draining. They had their own little shindig, which was better than the feast. Jael got smash-faced drunk and Verlin and Atticus weren’t much better. The rest of them were only mildly tipsy, which was good because they could make sure the twins didn’t fall off their dragon- Ex and Plode the Monstrous Zippleback- as they flew up to the cliff face they’d decided to have their own separate picnic at for the night.   
The first thing they did when they landed was remove their helmets and armour. They’d been provided to wear them for the day’s celebrations, showing off the new legionnaire trappings, Atticus, Charlotte and Aeliana wearing theirs in support.   
Hiccup was thankful that he was a dragon rider and thus didn’t have to wear the usual uniform. Instead he wore a flight-suit with armouring and a full-face covering helmet to block the wind. His friends wearing a similar-such thing. Since Hiccup had joined Rome he’d passed on all his knowledge of dragon training. An entire cohort had been added to every legion just for riders and plenty of soldiers had found their own dragon companions and fought alongside them.   
But the fact that his uniform was less bulky and hot didn’t stop him from being immensely relieved when he could finally remove the main armouring. Atticus earned a laugh from everyone as he stripped off his under tunic and replaced it with a shorter shirt, then flopped dramatically in the grass.  
“move you sad-sack,” Charlotte grumbled, nudging him with her foot. Once he rolled over she tossed down the blanket they’d brought and Aeliana sat the food basket on top.   
The spot they had was a small little bit of clearing at the edge of the cliff. Trees surrounded them on all sides and the cliff edge was flat enough to not give them all vertigo sitting so close. It was only big enough for all six of them and their dragons to fit without lying on top of each other- although they didn’t usually have too many qualms against such a thing- and the dragons liked to curl up at the tree-line in between the roots.   
Jael walked to the edge and plonked down inches away from the drop, Charlotte pulled her by the shoulder to the middle of the blanket.  
“you’re not falling of the bloody mountain today,” she chuckled at Jael’s annoyed look and poking tongue.  
“so any other day will suffice?” she slurred, legs crossed over Atticus’s.   
Verlin settled next to Atticus, hands folding under his head. Charlotte sat down next to the basket, Aeliana lay down at her feet, resting her head on her legs. She got a disapproving glance from Charlotte for it, but she made a face and just settled in cosier.   
Hiccup plonked himself down next to Verlin, staying sitting up. Verlin hooked his arm around his shoulders and pulled him to the ground. Hiccup laughed. He didn’t find it particularly funny, but laughter seemed the easiest reaction when he was with these people. It just happed, whether something called for it or not.   
Also he’d had a couple drinks, but who was blaming alcohol?


	7. Gifts and Visitors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We can't sail on easy winds and waves for too long, the plot must start causing problems eventually.

Pluto was a god, but even gods can be subject to extreme dullness.   
It was rather unfortunate, that he could hold such awesome, insurmountable power and yet still have to spend the majority of his time reading through paperwork or dealing with ignorant civilians who couldn’t seem to run their lives themselves.   
_Dead_ civilians, mind you, so he supposed they had some excuse. But even still, running the underworld was a lot more boring when you had to deal with some farmer complaining that he should have gone to Elysium because he saved that one guy like, ten years ago from some minor illness.   
Today’s appointments, however, were proving themselves to be a bit more exciting.   
Pluto’s hair stood slightly on edge and his wife, Proserpina, grabbed hold of her scythe-staff to her right.   
As Pluto rose from his throne he gripped his staff, double pronged, and Proserpina hissed, "Jupiter.”  
As if she had invoked his presence by speaking his name, the smell of electricity filled the air and a crackle heaved its way through his skin. Before him stood his younger brother, Jupiter, god of the sky and storm and king of the Olympian council.   
“Brother,” Pluto greeted, Proserpina scowled and made no move to relax the grip on her staff.   
“the correct title is ‘my king’,” Jupiter grumbled, jaw clenched. Oh, he was angry, brilliant, because Pluto’s day hadn’t been long enough.   
“you are in the underworld, little brother, this is my kingdom. And last I checked I am not a member of your dominion regardless.”  
“and even if we were,” Proserpina stated, chin raised and voice even, with a lilt of very clear insult hidden by flowery practice, “a title of such respect and splendour does not deserve to be contaminated by your existence.”   
“Pluto you may wish to control your wife before I take drastic measures.” Jupiter sneered.  
Pluto looked to Proserpina pleadingly. If he was to make it out of this conversation sane it would be best that the two not start a brawl in the throne room.   
Proserpina rolled her eyes and let go of her staff, letting a few rose plants crawl their way up it to hold it in place. She snapped her head back at Jupiter with a final glare as the thorns grew to an enormous size.   
“what can I do for you?” Pluto asked, trying to hold back the dripping sarcasm from his voice.   
“you can explain to me why I only just came across the existence of a living champion of the underworld.” Jupiter all but snarled through just barely unclenched teeth.   
“there is no champion of the underworld,” Pluto stated smoothly, “only one of mine. These are not one in the same.”   
There was an audible sizzle in the room as Jupiter’s hands started sparking.  
“you have hidden a champion, one you have granted power almost to the level of a demigod, and you have not allowed him to be tried as any champion or demigod should.”  
“I have my reasons,” Pluto sighed, “I will do with my power as I will, you have no right to stand between myself and my own ability to govern and lead my domain. You have no right to come here and-”  
“I am the king of Olympus!”  
“AND WE ARE RULERS OF THE UNDERWORLD!” Proserpina stood from her throne, holding her staff once again, a snarl seconds away from arriving on her face, “you are in our domain, Gigolo, and you are sorely outnumbered. You best run back along to your melting-pot, wheeler-dealer, glorified brothel before we have you hung, strung and quartered and throw your entrails into the Styx like you did to Saturn into his sealed tomb!”  
Proserpina seemed to have become taller, the marbling of the floor roiled under her feet, and her eyes turned blacker than Pluto’s shadowed tunic.  
If he was being completely honest Pluto wanted to sneak off into a hallway with his wife like a teenager.   
Jupiter had some barebones intelligence, apparently, because he shrunk under Proserpina’s glare, the crackle of his lightning seemed to be smothered by the whispers of the damned.  
Jupiter took a deep breath, just barely hiding the shakiness, and neatened his tunic. “he will not be untried, this new champion of yours.”  
“I’m sure,” Proserpina said smoothly, and regardless of her calm demeanour her voice held the power of rocks shredding against each other in an avalanche.   
And then Jupiter disappeared in another flash of lightning, the smell of his energy zinging through the air with finality. The line had been drawn.   
Pluto released a breath and collapsed onto his chair, he was beyond tired and he still had more visitors to deal with.  
“so,” Proserpina began evenly, “a champion?”  
With a groan Pluto sunk deep into his throne. 

The morning after the fourth and fifth legion’s celebrations was full of overlooked malpractice and superiors looking the other way.  
Hiccup woke with a pounding headache, oncoming nausea and the insatiable need to down something hot, bitter and spiced. All things considered, he doubted anyone else was in better condition.   
It took a moment for him to recognise his new surroundings. He was no longer in the barracks with his fellow soldiers, instead in a smaller room of his own. Legionnaire’s quarters. He’d moved in already before the drinking started, but even still it was strange not having to climb down from a top bunk.   
Once he stepped out of his room he saw Verlin leaning against the railing of the patio that linked all the legionnaire’s rooms laughing with a fellow legionnaire, Gaius, a bottle in hand.   
“hey mate,” Verlin grinned, saluting with a wave of the bottle, “hailed be the blessed.”  
“whatever you say,” Hiccup chuckled, gently stealing the bottle and placing it on the railing before hoisting Verlin up from under the shoulders, “let’s get you to the mess hall.”  
“been,” Verlin snickered, “chef reckoned I’m ‘unruly’, came back for a chat with the fellows.”  
“well then, to the praetorium it is,” Hiccup sighed, giving Gaius a teasing glare.   
“I tried stopping him,” he chuckled, hands up in surrender.   
“oh you did so well,” Hiccup said drily, “can you give me a hand getting him to Lia and Char, they know how to sober him up better than anyone.”  
“if I get up I’ll fall down the stairs,” he laughed, “good luck though.”  
Hiccup sighed dramatically, lugging Verlin down the stairs.

Charlotte was, as usual, already attending to legion affairs in the praetorium by the time Hiccup managed to drag Verlin inside.   
Hiccup dropped Verlin into a chair then took up his own, slumping his head onto the table.  
“morning,” Charlotte greeted, head in a hand propped on the table, “I see you’re doing as well as everyone else.”  
“ha.”  
“Woooo,” Verlin muttered, “got any drinks?”  
“no,” Charlotte laughed but slid a plate of biscuits across the table, “eat something it’ll make you feel better.”  
“thanks,” Hiccup muttered, but his nausea still lingered so he decided nibbling on the biscuit, as opposed to devouring, was probably the safer option, especially if Charlotte had cooked them, “I’m more worried about Verlin though, any ideas to sober him up?”  
“patience has worked well in the past,” Charlotte smiled, looking at some paperwork for mere seconds, shaking her head and then putting it aside, “all considering I wouldn’t be too worried about protocol and TLC, everyone’s hungover and we don’t have any scheduled visits. I was considering waiting it out till the buzz is gone.”  
“yeah fair enough,” Hiccup sighed, “where’s Lia?”  
“she hasn’t stopped by yet. It’s mid-week, she’s likely checking the terror-nests for letters.” She leafed through a stack of some papers, crinkled her nose and put them to the side as well.   
“bingo,” came the voice of the aforementioned as Aeliana strode in through the door in protocol required armouring, looking far too healthy for it to be fair.   
“hi,” Hiccup mumbled, remembering that he’d forgotten his armourings and was only wearing casual wear. It was days like these he thanked his lucky stars his friends were his praetors.   
“guess what celestial conversation came this morning?”  
“what?” Hiccup sat up, suddenly a lot more awake, “you’re kidding.”  
“nope,” she sat a leather-wrapped parcel on the table in front of Hiccup, about a metre long and a couple inches round, “unfortunately they didn’t stick around to chat, although that’s unsurprising as I wasn’t the intended receiver.”  
Hiccup already knew it was Pluto, there was no other god who would be sending him things. Vesta was a possibility, but she preferred prophetic wisdom and thought to be her gifts rather than material objects.  
Momentarily he was hurt that his Patron hadn’t bothered to stop by long enough to talk. Realistically he hadn’t even stopped by, he’d gone to the mailboxes. But that was to be expected. Word couldn’t get out that a champion of Pluto was walking amongst the people of Rome, there was no better omen of oncoming death and misfortune than that. And even still, it was technically military protocol to contact the legion’s Praetor and send along a message to members unless it was completely personal.  
Hiccup was really beginning to hate protocols.   
He unwrapped the leather, though, his headache still banging along like Vulcan in his forge. But all was forgotten and forgiven when he laid eyes on what he’d been sent.   
A gladius, sheathed, gleamed in the low light of the praetorium. The cross guard was polished ivory, stained leather wrapped around its grip, the pommel was sharpened to a stout point held by gleaming bronze clasps. Charlotte sucked in a breath at the sight of the blade. Hiccup shared the sentiment.  
Before he even touched it he knew it was masterly crafted.  
He lifted the sword, it weighed half of what he expected, and marvelled at how perfectly balanced it was. His hand fit the hilt with ease and it slid out of the sheath with no issue, it was well-oiled and cared for.   
The blade itself was black. Blacker than black. Deep and shadowed. The light didn’t reflect off it, it was absorbed by it. he twisted the blade slightly and it shimmered, glowing like there were tiny stars hidden inside it. Hiccup rapped a knuckled against the metal.   
“stygian Iron,” he announced in awe. He’d heard of it, the metal that could only be wielded by those touched by the underworld and death.   
“now _that’s_ a sword,” Charlotte ran her eyes up and down it, “I’d ask to hold it myself but I’m pretty sure it’d burn me alive.”  
“something like that,” Hiccup murmured, still in awe at the blade in his hands.  
Belatedly, he realised there was something else wrapped in the leather and slid the sword back in its sheath, then lay it on the table. A leather quiver, strengthened and slightly embellished with more stygian iron, sat alongside a letter from Pluto. The quiver was fully stocked with arrows and a strip of iron was attached to the side of it.  
“mate,” Verlin said, “it’s not even Saturnalia”  
“I know, it’s ridiculous,” he said, picking up the letter.  
“so what’s the occasion?” Aeliana asked when he sat it down.  
“Jupiter knows,” Hiccup sad and the room’s happiness dropped a few pegs, “he’s promised I’ll be tried as any other champion or even demigod.”  
“that’s ridiculous,” Aeliana hissed.  
“it’s really not,” Hiccup defended, “regardless Pluto has sent these so I can defend myself from magical attacks. Apparently the sword turns into a ring. And the strip turns into a bow.” He aimed the last part to Verlin, hoping to strike his interest in something that wasn’t alcohol.  
“well then, to the shooting range,” he drawled, clumsily getting up from his chair and promptly collapsing when he flung his leg too far forwards in his first step, “raincheck.”

Atticus was expecting Hiccup to be in the training ring the night after the celebrations. After Hiccup had joined the army he’d been an avid student, more so than any other. Atticus had trained him himself in sword fighting and archery and often saw Hiccup sneak out to the training grounds for practice during the night. This night was no exception, although now Atticus didn’t really train hiccup, more so train with hiccup as his ex-Viking friend had managed to pretty much catch up to him skill wise. Although, neither of them were better archers than Verlin, the drunk he-devil, or swordsmen than Aeliana.   
The difference though, was that tonight Hiccup was not training with the usual roman gladius every soldier was given but a strange dark sword that glittered like stars hid in it.  
He ran through the warm up movements with ease, hitting every pose accurately. The blade shimmered, dark, sucked in the light then reflected it back.   
"fancy blade, did you get it from that merchant fellow?”  
"no," he shifted his feet and brought the pommel closer to his torso, "express mail from Pluto.”  
"oh fun," he unsheathed his own gladius, "why is it all sparkly?”  
"it’s stygian iron.” He twisted slightly, bringing the blade higher.   
Atticus whistled, moving near hiccup and joining him on the warm up exercise, "monster killer, huh? Specialised only for the underworld powered. Is there a reason?”  
"apparently whatever secrets were being kept about my position as champion have been spilled and Pluto reckons I may be faced with a few challenges in the form of monsters.”  
"lovely,” Atticus rolled his shoulders back, "you better start using those powers of yours then.”  
Hiccup made a face, "you know I don’t like to.”   
"I haven’t the faintest idea why.”  
"because it’s… I don’t know. feeling the presence of death, even working with the shadows… it’s weird. It feels weird.”  
"but it’s got a great advantage in battle. It’d even the playing field against monsters who have magical abilities.”  
Hiccup rolled his eyes, changing position, "I’ll think about it.”  
"I don’t know why you don’t like it. it looks so cool.”   
Hiccup sighed, straightening up, "whatever, let’s see if this sword works just as well as a normal gladius.” 

The stygian iron gladius did work just as well as a normal blade, better even if Hiccup was honest.   
It was strange, the two ways he thought of weapons. He had always had an appreciation for how swords and maces and other weapons were made and crafted thanks to his strong roots in smithing and inventing. He knew how to spot a well-crafted piece by the balance of the blade, the shape of the metal, the size of the hilt. He could spot a botched job by rapping his knuckle on the metal and listening to the ring it made. He knew how things worked theoretically and therefore why they were preferable.   
But now he didn’t just make and invent weapons, he used them. He knew what technique went behind the swing of the sword, the thrust, the parry. He did understand that the Roman training he had was much more in depth than what Vikings usually had. They kind of stuck with ‘swing it in their face till they run off or you run them through, size and strength is the most important thing, off you go!’ whereas the Romans had hours of gruelling exercise and training with strategy. Size and strength could be important, but if you were small you weren’t entirely disadvantaged, you had strengths to play to.   
It was because of that that the Romans were capable of what the Vikings never were- training Hiccup to be a capable and experienced swordsman and soldier. And now when he held a sword he didn’t just think of how it balanced in his hand, how the metal was forged, he also thought of how versatile it would be in battle, how many weapons he could successfully fend off with the one blade. He swung it and ran through some small training exercises and imagined how it would hold up.   
It was strange.   
It had been three years since he left Berk, three years of being completely and utterly himself and making his own decisions and fighting for what he wanted. One could think that his place as a soldier would limit him, but never had he thrived more. He’d proved himself to the people that mattered, and he’d learned that those that mattered had never needed proof of his skills. He’d grown into himself and learned new things and continued to look for more information.   
Rome was the best thing that could have happened to him.   
And yet he still could see the remnants of Berk in how he acted.   
When he questioned whether he should speak his mind, held himself back, he could feel his younger self warning him. The eternal feeling that he would be cast aside lurked at the back of his mind. His experiences as a Viking would always cling to his skin with the fear of not being accepted, listened to or taken seriously.   
and he hated the fact that all of that was what was keeping him from paying attention to his friend.   
“earth to Hiccup!” Atticus clicked his fingers in front of Hiccup’s eyes, “you alright?”   
“I’m fine,” Hiccup concentrated back on the game of chess in front of him, knowing it must have been his turn, and moved to protect his king and queen better.  
Atticus took his knight in retaliation, not realising he cared very little about it. He was using a basic strategy he’d figured out a while ago that was pretty bare bones but was enough. Considering his spacing out he’d expect it would completely fail, but lucky for him Atticus wasn’t good at Chess.   
Atticus was a man of strategy, but he needed real motive. If these were wasn’t something on the line he made stupid mistakes and didn’t think things through.   
“I’m serious,” he shifted a pawn, “you’ve been spacing out recently. and don’t pretend the nearing of your ‘leaving Berk’ anniversary is coincidentally happening at the same time.”   
“I am not spacing out,” Hiccup moved his rook, “I’m thinking.”  
“that is very close to the definition of spacing out.”   
“shut up.”   
Atticus moved his knight, “is it about the powers thing? If so I’m sorry-“  
“no, nothing’s wrong and if there was something wrong you wouldn’t be the cause of it.” Hiccup shifted his queen.   
“stress?”  
“no.”   
“did you get injured in a flight or something?”   
“no!”   
“then what’s wrong?”   
“nothing! I swear.”   
“and I swear that if you keep lying I’ll grab you by the ankle and drag you through the Tiber till you come out like Achilles in the Greek myths.” Atticus shifted his knight.  
“do you know how that story goes?” Hiccup took his Knight.   
“not as well as I should.”  
Hiccup snorted, “he was at the fall of Troy.”  
“I wasn’t alive for the fall of Troy.” Atticus shifted a pawn.   
Hiccup smiled and chuckled and moved a pawn.   
“there it is.”  
Hiccup snapped his head up, the smile taking a confused tilt, “what?”  
“you’re smile,” Atticus moved his king, “I haven’t seen it in a couple days.”  
Hiccup moved his knight, “oh, I hadn’t realised.”   
“after we left the dragon nest where you re-met your mum you kind of sobered. And then you were appointed Legionnaire and… I don’t know, you look like Atlas.” He moved a pawn.   
“… I guess I’ve had some stuff on my mind.” He moved his queen.   
“and does that have anything to do with you having left Berk almost exactly three years ago?” Atticus said with a raised eyebrow. His chair creaked as he leaned forward and moved his bishop.   
Hiccup sighed, “yeah, maybe. That and everything else.” He moved a pawn.   
“why don’t we go on a flight? All of us. Charlotte, Aeliana, Jael, Verlin, You and me. Just a flight, we can camp out at a few islands. Visit the edge. Just relax. The fourth and fifth aren’t currently in much use. And I know for a fact that Charlotte needs to be forcibly removed from her working desk.”   
“you sure?”   
“yeah,” he moved his rook, “we can even hide it as a ‘discovery’ mission or whatever. ‘yes Emperor, we’re going out to find some more islands and look in at some of our outer fortifications, see you in a few weeks!’”  
Hiccup chuckled, “yeah, it might be fun.” He moved his knight, “check mate.”  
“excuse me?”   
“you heard.”

Drago sipped his mead and eyed his map.  
His eyes lifted to the man on the other side of the table, who had appeared out of thin air in the seat across from him with only a strange jagged light where he now sat and a tangy smell. He was dressed strangely and held himself like a man of power.   
"so why have you come here, stranger?”   
"I was made aware you intend to rid the world of dragons.”   
"and you are against this?” Drago asked, placing his cup over the drawn image of Rome, they were in another empire’s waters now, just north of the dragon-loving civilisation.   
"no,” he shifted, moving his arms onto the table and leaning forward, “I would like to help you.”  
"and what can you offer me?”   
"you have no idea.”

Hiccup huffed and tossed another balled up piece of paper over his shoulder, slumping onto his desk in defeat.   
He was trying to design armour for his friends and re-design his own armour. It was proving difficult, however, to make something both battle sturdy and good for flying with the materials the Roman Blacksmiths could provide him with.  
When that had caused troubles he decided to give something else a go and come back later to the armour conundrum, deciding on focusing on his inferno idea that applied similar techniques of flares to a small blade. Except he wasn’t getting anywhere with that design either.   
He’d hit a mental block with his inventions and it was stressing him out majorly. Usually inventing was what relieved him of stress! What the heck was going on?  
“you’re overloading.”   
Hiccup jumped in his seat, turned and reached for his gladius…  
Which was not next to his desk, it was on the other side of the room because he was trying to get used to having the stygian sword-ring thing. Gods dammit.   
“relax, it’s me.” Pluto stood at the foot of Hiccup’s bed. He was wearing his usual black toga made of the strange shifting material that Hiccup thought looked like shadow spun into opaque cloth.  
Hiccup relaxed, turning his chair around and sitting back down with a light chuckle “I didn’t sense you.”  
“that was apparent, yes.” His usual glum look was broken by a hint of a smile that disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared, “it’s because you aren’t using your abilities and therefore not exerting the extra energy they give you. It’s heightening your stress and making you less aware of your surroundings.”  
“I haven’t had that issue since you gave them to me,” Hiccup rose a brow.   
“that’s because you’ve grown more skilled with them, if only barely. You’ve adapted. Now that you’re more capable they will require to be expended every now and then. If you don’t you’ll lose concentration because of your powers attempting to act out without your will. and it’ll get worse as it progresses.”  
“why didn’t you tell me this before?”   
“I didn’t expect you to pretend you didn’t have those abilities. I gave them to you so you could use them to your advantage.”   
Hiccup rolled his eyes, “I’m sorry, they’re just… strange.”   
“I understand, but… one of the reasons I made you my champion is because I sensed you’d need those powers. I’m not a prophet, but any god can have strange visions or moments of clairvoyance,” Pluto seemed to be trying to force an extra serious face so Hiccup would take him seriously, “I’m sure you’ve been debriefed about current occurrences further North. Something is going to happen Hiccup. And you’re going to need your powers to deal with it.”   
“why do I need to deal with it?” Hiccup asked, leaning back against the chair, “it’s great, I’m honoured, but… aren’t there demi-gods? People who actually know what they’re doing? Why is the ex-Viking outcast chosen to do this?”   
“I don’t know.” Pluto said, trying to keep his voice calm, “I’m just acting on my visions. Inaction could lead to Rome’s downfall.”   
“why not Aeliana then? Or Atticus? Or Charlotte? They’re all actual Romans who’ve trained far longer than me- surely they’d be better suited for this?” Hiccup threw his hands in the air.   
“because they were not the first dragon rider.”   
“what does being first have to do with anything?”  
“you’re not an ex-Viking. You’re not an outcast. you’re Hiccup, the one who tamed a night fury,” Toothless perked his head up from his ‘bed’ at that, then fell back asleep, “I don’t know. but when you crossed into Roman waters I sensed something different about you. You will have a major role in what is to come, whether you’re prepared for it or not.”  
Hiccup sighed and dropped his head into his hands, “I’m a Legionnaire, for some unknown reason, the most major role I’ll play is fighting on the front lines.”  
“have faith.”   
“I’m trying!”   
“just do your best,” Hiccup looked up as he felt Pluto set his hand on his shoulder, “that’s always enough.”   
Hiccup looked up at the Roman god, “and if it isn’t?”  
Pluto pursed his lips, “then you keep trying.”


	8. Old Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A trip to the North brings some minor issues. operative word: minor.

It took time for Atticus to properly organise the gang’s adventure, in that he had to consult his higher ups and persuade them to allow the dragon riders to go off duty for two weeks. Aeliana and Charlotte were praetors of the fifth and fourth respectively and the rest of the gang were legionnaires, and with the recent scuffles further north anyone in charge of discharging them were hesitant. The seventh and eighth legions were handling the problems but what if it got worse? what if their attackers travelled further south?  
Once Atticus got Aeliana on his side (by showing her just how deep in her work Charlotte was and pointing out the fact that Hiccup wasn’t much better) they listened a lot more. They were cleared after a good five days of arguing and persuasion.   
And then he had to drag Jael and Verlin from a pub, Charlotte from her desk, Hiccup from the training grounds and all their dragons from their naps.   
They packed their bags and mapped out a vague course to follow, with plenty of room for stops, that travelled east from Rome to Cerdena, over the Internum Mare, followed the coast of Hispania and then up to the Edge and the islands near Valka’s nest finishing with a visit there. They had plenty of food and water as long as they used the tools they had to get more along the way, and they would.   
And as much as they would be near the archipelago, they would not be going anywhere near Berk or any Viking tribes that knew of them.  
So, Atticus and Aeliana used their amazing skills to drag all parties away from their obsessions and off they went. 

Three years after Hiccup passed, Stoick Haddock sat on a hill overlooking Berk, his son’s dagger sat in the palm of his hand. Small. Barely a blade, more like a kitchen knife. It was not a worthy weapon to battle a dragon and had let him down when it mattered.  
There hadn’t been a dragon raid in years, the few beasts that Berk was visited by these days were lone drifters desperate for food or curious smaller dragons- likely younger- drawn by the lights of the village. They usually spooked and flew off before someone could attack, and if they got violent they usually decided to turn tail eventually.   
Everyone had started celebrating on the anniversary of the last dragon raid they were subject to, paper dragon crafts were burned or paraded to the cliffs and thrown into the ocean. Feasts were held, drinks had. It was wonderful, that they finally lived in peace.   
Stoick had, of course, celebrated with his village. But a few weeks after the anniversary was the day he had more interest in commemorating.   
His son was killed by a dragon, fifteen years old. it was a crime of nature.   
But Stoick couldn’t punish nature. there was no one for him to get revenge on. There was no fight he could win and suddenly feel whole again. his son now lived solely in the gaping crevice in his soul, alongside his love. And there was nothing he could do about it. 

For the first time in three years, Trader Johan docked at Berk.   
Astrid was almost relieved. Berk had very little communication with other tribes. Oswald the Agreeable hadn’t sent anything to berk in a while (in fact, people were beginning to gossip that Daggur had killed him) and the rest of the tribes tended to exist in their own little bubbles. Johan was the common trader that always stayed longest and talked lengthiest.   
So she had to admit that, for once, she was actually excited to listen to him ramble endlessly about one adventure or another.   
She was not the only one, as apparent by the crowd at the docks. She could barely move through everyone and she wasn’t even on his boat yet.   
Once she noticed Gustav had wormed his way onto the deck and was dramatically twirling some weapon that he definitely couldn’t use properly she decided to come back later. It’s not like Johan would get tired of dramatically telling stories and selling international antiquities. And it wasn’t her responsibility to save everyone from Gustav’s clumsy reckoning. It looked like someone was sailing with Johan presently and was awkwardly trying to un-arm the ridiculous fifteen-year-old.  
The town itself was on high with Johan’s arrival. Everyone’s wallets seemed to have become heavier and with it came a weight being pulled from people’s shoulders. There hadn’t been a dragon raid in three years, crops were flourishing and livestock was giving them higher yields since they weren’t being frequently terrorized. Astrid almost felt like she had no problems awaiting and a clear future on the horizon. Provided her parents didn’t start hassling her about marriage.   
She decided to stop by Gobber’s workshop. since Hiccup had passed she and the other teens had been expected to step up and help Gobber in the forge. What was once a one-man job filled by Hiccup became an almost five-man one thanks to their joint lack of education on blacksmithing. Eventually Snotlout and the twins had bludged helping completely, sticking with just their usual chores and tasks. But Fishlegs and Astrid liked the atmosphere of Gobber’s growing forge and Gobber had become quieter since Hiccup died, a helpful ear or even sometimes a therapeutic storyteller.   
Today was no different, and when she entered she saw Fishlegs cooped up against a desk with some papers in front of him, likely blueprints and such. Gobber himself hadn’t fired the forge for the day, instead doing some leatherwork on a few swords and axes.   
"you need anything done?” she asked, leaning against a table.   
Gobber looked up, "not much, lass. I’m waiting for the crowd to die down so I can do some trading with Johan,” he picked a quiver up from the ground, "reckon you could fletch these arrows for me?”  
"no problem.” She took up another separate corner of the forge- bigger and more open than it was three years prior- and started the intricate task of adding fletching to the arrows. It was awkward in the start, but her hands warmed up to it and soon she got into a rhythm.

The sky darkened quickly and Astrid kicked herself for not checking out Johan’s ship, surely the crowd would have died down by now. Regardless, his boat would still be there the next day and it was almost impossible for him to run out of interesting wares.   
So she made her way to the great hall- after standing up and stretching the knots in her back out- and was greeted by a joyous celebration so loud it was a wonder it couldn’t be heard from every island around them.   
The mead casks were out and a hunting group had gone into the forest and brought back plenty of fresh meat. She was quite sure she smelled the tell-tale spices that Fishlegs parents covered the important meals with and her mouth watered at the same time as her stomach started growling.   
She filled her plate and settled down at the table with Fishlegs, the twins and Snotlout, who were already well into conversation, but considering Snotlout’s dramatic air she picked up on the topic quick.  
“look, I’m telling you, it’ll happen soon. I’m almost eighteen, and Stoick’s not getting any younger.” He mumbled that last part from the side of his mouth acting as if the hooligan tribe still subscribed to the old ways of not acknowledging your chief’s eventual demise, “he’ll name me his heir in place of Hiccup,” an added sneer at his cousin’s name, “in no time.”  
“suuuuure he will,” Ruffnut drew out, a smirk evident as she leaned to her brother and winked.  
“I thought chiefs were actually supposed to be good at leading people,” Fishlegs said, an eye roll so large Astrid could almost imagine his eyes popping out and bouncing across the table. Squish-squish-schlop! as they plopped onto the twins mashed potatoes.   
But no, it didn’t happen. So she was stuck with this dull conversation.   
Snotlout groaned, “just cause you haven’t seen my amazing leadership skills doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”  
“you can’t be awarded for something you haven’t done yet, Snotlout.” Astrid drawled.  
“well who else is going to do it? I’m the closest relative of an heir-age.”  
“that’s not a thing,” Fishlegs looked at Astrid like ‘when can we leave him on outcast island forever?’  
If she was honest she was asking herself the same question.   
“whatever Fishlegs, you keep your… smarts, and logic or whatever you call them-“  
“basic mental functions,”  
“and I’ll keep my intuition and gut feelings,” he continued over Fishlegs interjection, “and we’ll see who’s right!”  
“me.”   
“shut up!”  
Astrid laughed and looked to Fishlegs, preferring his company over Snotlout’s. at least she could hold an interesting conversation with him. Snotlout just wanted to flirt. The twins went off on some tirade about a mace they bought from Johan and Snotlout angrily ate his food while calling the twins muttonheads.   
So the night was rather normal till someone stood up on a table and started a drinking song.  
It wasn’t particularly odd for that to happen, what was odd was that it was being sung by Johan’s ship-hand friend and every other line seemed like it was poorly translated from another language. The man also held an accent Astrid couldn’t recognise- although, she couldn’t recognise many, seeing as she hadn’t heard much.   
But he danced along the table in his own little world, his drink tight in his fist as he sang;  
“let it now be taught,  
If a man is as he ought,   
Alleluia!  
The beer will sing:  
 _Res Miranda!_  
Wonderful thing!  
“drink, if there’s beer in your jar-  
It’s far to the sun, from the stars  
Drink it well, drink it deep.  
Out of the barrel flows the beer,  
 _Semper clara_  
Always clear.”  
He did a twirl at one end of the table, some of the onlookers began to clap a beet as he tapped one on the wood. it was like an elaborate dance, the song made with his movements.   
“drink your beer deep, drink it well  
I’ll drink mine in parallel  
But take great care,  
Don’t leave your beer by the fire rail!  
 _Fit corrupta_  
For it will stale!”  
He shot his drink back, quick, head flicking with a jerk. He lifted his arms up and whooped, tapping on the table to a tune that fit with the constant beat of his audience’s drumming applause.  
“if the rich throw a riotous party  
Let us too then be noisy and hearty:  
To your good health!”  
He turned to Stoick, sitting at his table, and raised his now empty mug, not pausing at all in his song.  
“bless the good neighbour with rations to eat  
 _Carna Sumpta_  
Take up the meat!”  
He started a kind of instrumental break, his tool being his feet. he moved from one end of the table to the other then came back to the middle, setting his mug down before picking up the dance again. barely interrupted.   
“as for the innkeeper, sweet Madonna  
Who treats all her guests with regal honour,  
Naught strike her blind  
Good drink and food most generously  
 _Hec Predicta;_  
More worthy than women before her is she!”  
He turned and Astrid briefly made eye contact with him, she snapped her head to the table quickly however. She didn’t need attention from some foreigner who couldn’t compose himself while drunk.  
However, Ruffnut was trying to catch his attention, easily done considering their table’s location. There was only one table between them and the people previously sitting there had moved, there was a clear path to them  
He seemed to have noticed that, considering his easy grin and the leap he made across to the table between them.  
“let it be seen   
the ale will sing to us  
Alleluia!  
Whoever drinks some,  
May he be as he should,  
Thing of wonder!”  
And he was still dancing.   
“now let us drink to the queen  
In pints and quarts, so we won’t be called mean.  
Our cask won’t run dry,  
All through the night it’s full of good mirth  
 _Puerpera,_  
And giving birth.”   
He leaped to their table, feet moving wildly. Snotlout cleared his food from the stranger’s path and Fishlegs grumbled about the unhygienic act of dancing on a table.  
“full of joy,   
Let the chorus of the faithful sing,  
Alleluia!  
A spotless womb brings forth  
The king of kings,  
Thing of wonder!”  
He tapped a final rhythm, finishing with a stomp to the wood table, a smug look bright on his face.  
The onlooking Vikings applauded with an alcohol-induced fervour, calling for an encore. The stranger laughed, bowed, drank in the attention. He seemed to be made for it. but he bowed out not after long, plopping to the ground in front of the table. He spun and leaned against it, head barely a few inches from Fishlegs.   
Beside Astrid, Ruffnut grinned and leaned forward till she was the same distance away. Next to his sister, Tuffnut leaned on his hand and waved. Snotlout seemed about as unamused as Fishlegs.  
“hi there,” the stranger said, breath short and deep, “name’s Verlin.”

Verlin sat with them and ate while telling stories and being generally the most dramatic person Astrid had ever met.   
Fishlegs seemed to warm up to him because he started ranting about where he came from- some apparently very big Empire called Rome, Astrid didn’t believe him, if there was an Empire that big they’d know about it. Snotlout seemed okay with him because apparently Rome had no shortage of interesting battles, leading to Snot hanging onto every word as Verlin recounted the story of some campaign or another he went on. Tuffnut thought he was almost as awesome as his cousin Gruffnut and Ruffnut spent quite a while fawning over the guy’s tanned skin, square jaw and silver hair.   
Astrid was grumpily dealing with his presence until-  
“and then we both scrambled onto a nearby dragon’s back and skedaddled outta there!”   
“you got on a dragon’s back?” she asked, sneer spreading across her face, “sure, you know I think you’re full of crap.”  
“what do you mean?” he chuckled, “you guys don’t fly dragons around here?”  
Fishleg’s eyes blew wide and Snotlout spat out his drink, the twins looked at each other then to the stranger with a look of clear confusion, mouths gaping.  
“no, we don’t fly dragons. They’re monsters that destroy our crops and have killed hundreds of us.” Astrid explained, as if she were speaking to a child.  
Verlin blinked, “what island did you say this was again?” he asked, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.   
“Berk.” Answered Snotlout.  
“oh… _Landica Futuo_.”  
Verlin stumbled up from the table and scrambled over to Johan, Astrid followed, curious as to this strange man’s drunken idiocy. The others were close behind.  
“this is Berk.” Verlin said, eyes wide, when Johan turned to him.  
“yes, I told you that.”  
“no you didn’t,” Verlin whispered, noticing the few men Johan had been spinning tall-tales to.  
“yes I did, I told you ‘Verlin, this is Berk, so you better be on your best behaviour and not mention anything stupid’, what did you do?”  
“uh,” Verlin glanced at Astrid, “Johan remember when I told you not to tell me vital information when I’m drunk and definitely make sure to tell me where we are a couple times because locations fly over my head?”  
“yes.”  
“I was being serious.”  
“you told them about dragons didn’t you?” Johan said flatly, looking to Astrid and the teens, “he told you about dragon flying didn’t he?”  
“he’s joking right?” Fishlegs asked.  
“or drunkenly stupid?” Snotlout added.  
Johan sighed, “go tell you-know-who what you did.” He said to Verlin, who nodded and left the hall, “he was telling the truth.”  
“what?!”  
“Johan, what is going on here?” Stoick asked, mug in hand and eyes following Verlin out.  
“my temporary ship-hand has spilled some rather heavy secrets to Miss Astrid and her friends.”  
“Oh?” Stoick asked, eyes narrowing on the trader, “what kind of secrets?”  
“perfectly safe ones, however unusual that is. It does mean that I will have to explain a few things for you, because I may as well now that most of the truth is in the open.” Johan sat, “Verlin is from a place in the south called Rome, and the people who live there fly dragons.”

Astrid lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling.   
_‘Rome was visited three years ago by a man some have decided to call The Dragon Master. He earned this title because he had discovered how to tame dragons.’_  
Johan’s words still echoed around in her head. she couldn’t comprehend it. the idea that these Romans could invite those draconic beasts into their lives and treat them not only like pets but like friends. It was ridiculous. Impossible. Incomprehensible. Unfathomable.  
 _‘this Dragon Master was actually from here in the north where the dragons were more of a problem. Almost was a Viking even, till he left. Unlike most of you he didn’t subscribe to your… hateful opinions on dragons.’_  
But Johan said it all with such belief, it had to be true. And Verlin had said it like it was no big deal.   
It was crazy.  
But even Stoick couldn’t disprove what Johan said. Every query, every issue he could think of, every intricacy he brought up was answered and explained away by Johan. It all fit together. In a way there was no way it couldn’t be true. But that didn’t make Astrid want to believe it. she hated dragons. Had been raised and taught that way from day one. She would not, could not and should not change her mind, these romans and there preposterous lifestyle be damned. She was a Viking, not some prissy flower-crown wearing simpleton who thought monsters with sharp teeth, claws, fire breath and hunger for humans were a tameable pet to fly around and snuggle with.   
No.  
And Astrid didn’t miss Johan’s statement that the hatred of dragons was theirs not ours, as in he had long-since dropped such notions. How could he betray the gods and his people like that? he may be a nomadic tradesman, but he was still a Viking.   
Whatever, her beliefs and experience trumped the mere words of some stranger from a so-called empire who probably had never seen a battlefield in his life.   
But her thoughts snagged on something Johan said.  
 _‘he trained a night fury… the fact he survived the encounter to me is a miracle, the idea that he befriended it laughable, but it’s true I swear it.’_  
A night fury.  
It was likely the same night fury she’d found the scales of in Berk’s cove. Likely the same night fury that had killed one of her village’s own. Likely the same night fury that left her chief depressed and wounded, a whisper of his old self.  
No, she would not accept the word of someone who would dare ally themselves with that creature.  
But her mind twisted over the words anyway, rolled them over in her mind and analysed them from every angle.  
This dragon master appeared in Rome not long after Hiccup passed, and the way Johan talked about him and his dragon made it sound they had been together for a while. But if this night fury had been tamed then why would it have killed Hiccup? Hiccup wouldn’t have attacked it, surely. Some of her fellow Berkians believed Hiccup had gone hunting to give himself confidence for the fight the next day, but that made no sense. Astrid didn’t know Hiccup well but she knew he wouldn’t have done that. he had to have been walking, maybe drawing a tree or investigating the fish in the cove’s pond or something.  
So why did the fury kill him if it was tame and unthreatened?  
This dragon master surely wouldn’t have ordered Hiccup be killed, he seemed like some philanthropist that wanted people to realise dragons could be their friends.   
Of course, it could have just been a different Night Fury…  
No, there were so few around it couldn’t be. and the way Johan tip-toed around the subject made it sound like he knew more that he was holding back. it had to be the same dragon.  
But why..?  
 _‘this Dragon Master was actually from here in the north where the dragons were more of a problem. Almost was a Viking even, till he left.’_  
Almost was.  
Almost.  
 _‘okay, but I hit a night fury… it’s not like the last few times, dad, I mean I really actually hit it, it went down just off raven point…’_  
Raven Point… that wasn’t far from the cove. Wasn’t far at all.  
 _‘let’s get a search party out there.’_  
Hiccup let it all go very easily for someone wanting to prove himself. He never mentioned it again.  
Surely he’d have gone looking for the dragon…  
 _‘wow, he’s better than you ever were…’_  
He’d suddenly known everything about dragons. Everything. Their likes and dislikes, things that no Viking had ever discovered before. He wasn’t even scared of them, she’d seen him literally scratch a dragon like a cat. How did he know to do that? no one had done it before, getting that close to a dragon, alive, and being nice to it? it was unheard of. It wouldn’t have been in the book of dragons.  
So how did he know to do it?  
How did he…  
Astrid stood from her bed so suddenly her head spun a little, but regardless she sprinted downstairs and towards the dock.  
Johan had some explaining to do.

“you need to be more careful, Verlin. Hiccup has said he doesn’t want them knowing where he is, it’s best they think he’s dead.” Johan said.  
“I know, I know,” Verlin grumbled, taking a long sip of water, “it slipped out. I’ve been on a dry spell lately, I’m a bit more loose-lipped.”  
Johan sighed, “it’s okay, they would have found out as much as I told them soon anyway, I’m not the only merchant who makes it this far, and with those Grimborn brothers out of the way we merchants will be a lot less worried to sail about wherever we wish.”  
“you’re welcome.” Verlin chuckled, “gods those two were ridiculous. You know they actually put a bounty on Hiccup? we made sure it was shut down pretty quick and it seemed to be more of a ploy of Vigo’s but it was a worrisome few weeks.”  
“well, I suppose master Hiccup has a few more stories to tell me.”  
“how about you tell me one first?”  
Johan and Verlin turned to find Astrid on the gangplank to the ship, arms crossed.  
“Miss Astrid! We didn’t hear you coming!” Johan said, shooting a worried glance to Verlin.  
“that was the point,” she dropped down to the deck, “tell me who the dragon master is.”  
“I have no idea Miss Astrid, I’ve never really had a chance to meet the man-“  
Astrid picked up a sword from his wares and held it to his chest, “try again.”  
“heh, uh, well, you see, it’s uh, well, it’s quite a, um, long story.”  
“he’s Hiccup.” Verlin deadpanned, placing his cup on the table he was leaning against, “although I think you’d already figured that out, yes?”  
Astrid put the sword back, “yes, now tell me exactly what in Hel’s name he’s doing in Rome flying dragons of all creatures.”  
“Johan already told you,” Verlin said, frowning, “he left because living on his own with one of those _‘monstrous creatures’_ you Vikings hate so much seemed more appealing to him than living another day on Berk.”  
“what would you know?” Astrid scowled.  
“plenty, seeing as I’m one of the lucky bastards to call him a friend.” He sneered back, “now if you tell a single person on this island about this I will hunt you down and drop you from the highest cloud I can find into the northern sea, understand?”  
Astrid glared, eyes narrowed at the man she’d thought a drunken delinquent, “fine.”

Overnight and through the day Astrid thought over… everything.  
She would not understand Hiccup’s decisions relating dragons, not ever. She couldn’t. but she could… respect them, she supposed. Enough to not run straight to Stoick and spill everything. She wanted to, though. The chief had never been the same, never really gotten over his son’s death. But he didn’t want his father to know, and she supposed it had something to do with his own inner turmoil and self-degradations. She could respect his wishes. She would. Considering how badly she treated him for so many years he deserved that respect, at least.  
And what she could understand? Why he’d left.  
When her uncle had been killed by the flightmare and her entire family’s reputation came under question she’d felt so embarrassed, so miniscule in the world, so small and easily harmed. It didn’t help that she was mourning over her uncle. How so many villagers could stoop so low to whisper about her family when they were going through such a painful loss was still infuriating to her. And when the people she called friends started treating her the same she’d wanted to run away. She’d even packed a bag and run off into the woods, claiming she was going to live like a wild fae-child in the forest.   
But things had changed for her. People had apologised, made it up to her and her parents.  
Hiccup? it kept happening. For fifteen years. And even his father, his parent, the person who was supposed to have his back and love him unconditionally, was adding to the pain.   
She could understand it just fine.   
Overnight and through the day she thought of what she’d do if she woke up, five years old again, with a chance to do it over. She’d definitely be nicer to Hiccup. she’d also care more about Fishlegs and his books. And Ruff and Tuffs’ pranks. Maybe she’d even listen to Snotlout more often, but that was a stretch.  
She couldn’t go back in time, it wasn’t possible. But she could still think of it and make change now. It was too late for Hiccup, but her other friends? She still had a chance to support them before they fell apart in the wake of the village’s insurmountable expectations.  
But she couldn’t not say sorry to Hiccup. not when she had a chance to. He wasn’t in Valhalla or Vanaheim or even Helheim. She could say everything she needed to. She didn’t have to wait till she met him again in the afterlife, far too young and with so much potential. No. he was still alive. But there was no way he’d want to talk to her.  
So she wrote it down instead.  
Astrid made her way down to the docks, knowing that she would find Johan preparing to ship out. She did not realise she’d see him patting a terrible terror absentmindedly whilst reading a letter.   
"Johan?”  
He jumped and indiscreetly hid the letter behind him, scaring off the terror in the process. "Miss Astrid! What- uh- what brings you here? Again?”   
She held up her own letter which she’d taken almost the whole day trying to figure out how best to word, "I believe you have contact with Hiccup?”   
"uh, yes.” He looked around, placing his letter on a nearby table, "but you better keep that quiet because I don’t think master Hiccup would appreciate you spilling his secret.” He looked around again, “and even though Master Verlin is not currently present he is rather good at finding things out when he wants.”  
"I don’t intend to, it’s his secret to keep and his mess to clean up when it eventually comes to light. trust me it will," she added when Johan raised an eyebrow, "I was wondering if you could give this to him?”   
Johan took the letter, choosing not to unfold and read it lest he have his head chopped off. "I will see to it.”  
"thank you.” 

The gang’s trip was wildly uneventful, rather relaxing and yet somehow not boring.   
Hiccup was leaning against the front pole of his tent, feet out in front of him towards the fire and his sketch book in his lap. It was almost full, he was on the home stretch of pages, and he’d like to be finished by the time he was back in Rome. Whilst talking to local blacksmiths he’d been through the many marketplaces and there was a stall with some very nice leather sketchbooks he was itching to get his hands on.   
Jael and Charlotte were off in the small forest nearby having some fun shooting tress, Atticus and Verlin- back from his trip with Johan, which he’d been so excited for, Hiccup still didn’t understand why- were chatting round the fire, Toothless and Spike- Atticus’ Nadder- were chasing each other down the shoreline and the rest of the dragons were curled up around the fire.   
The sun was just hovering over the water, the orange reflections stark against the grey water. They’d crossed into the north, Viking territory. They were on course to visit his mother in a few days and he was genuinely excited. He hadn’t gotten to stick around much thanks to the recent celebrations so this was a chance to really get to know each other. he was also interested in seeing how things worked at the dragon nest with the king.   
And then, as he looked back down at his sketchbook, he heard the squawk of a terrible terror.   
It dropped down by hiccup’s prosthetic, plopped a metal canister on the sand and then cuddled up to his side with a purr.  
He unscrewed the cap of the canister expecting a reply from Johan, which he got, as well as a surprise and a half.   
He’d asked if he’d had any issues after crossing back into Viking territory, according to Johan he’d not only been just fine but also had had some interesting conversations with the inhabitants of Berk. And, just as Johan explained in his letter, one of those inhabitants had written something for him as well.   
Hiccup was beyond nervous reading Astrid’s letter. He kept expecting to read the next line and find ‘HOW DARE YOU RUN AWAY YOU DUMBASS, YOU’RE NO VIKING AND I’M TELLING THE WHOLE VILLAGE YOUR SECRET’ or something along those lines but it never came.   
Instead what he read was a letter explaining Astrid’s guilt about how she and the other teens had treated him and how they were stupid to ever let it get as far as it did. The letter explained that Astrid now understood the way they had treated him was immature, stupid, unfair and uncalled for and that she’d redo and change it all if she had the chance. It also said she wouldn’t utter a word about her revelation to anyone as it was his secret to tell, but she hoped he’d one day come back to Berk as his ‘death’ had greatly affected his father and Gobber. She ended it with saying she hoped he was enjoying his new life and the people in it treated him better than those on Berk had.   
Hiccup was genuinely shocked. He’d never expected contact with anyone from his past to happen again, let alone Astrid. And if it did happen he’d expected metaphorical pitchforks and torches. He’d never admit it kept him up at night, but there were times he wondered at the possibility of seeing someone from his past again and how badly it could go.   
He was surprised to find Astrid’s apology gave him some sense of… ease? Like one of the weights on his shoulders had been removed, and he hadn’t noticed it was there till it was gone. It was like he’d exhaled slightly at the realisation that people changed over time and therefore may have understood their mistakes.   
It was only Astrid, not his father, but the fact that someone from his old life no longer thought of him as a monumental screw up brought him a step closer to making amends with his past and acknowledging it existed. he still had quite a ways to go, though.   
But what also surprised him was the urge to immediately write back. His hand itched for his pencil and he wanted to as quickly as possible explain himself, even though he didn’t need to. It was like he needed to stamp a huge ‘DISCLAIMER’ over the first fifteen years of his life.   
And somewhere deep down, Hiccup kind of wanted to talk to Astrid more. His friends in Rome were amazing and he loved them, but something in him still desperately wanted the approval of the Vikings.  
He squashed that down as best he could, he did not need approval gods dammit he was eighteen and controlling his own life he didn’t need the affirmation that he was doing that well.   
And yet, never the less, he picked his pencil back up and started writing a reply. he told himself it was because he still had that teenage immaturity to him that looked up to Astrid as the badass she truly was and because of that he was taking the chance to befriend someone he’d stupidly idolised before he could even understand what the word meant, but a small part of him whispered he was just looking for another weight to be lifted.

Astrid didn’t know how Johan would get the letter to Hiccup. Rome was extremely far away and Johan wouldn’t go straight back there as he had more places to visit and trade with. But, to her surprise, she found out six nights later that the Roman empire used a fancy form of communication that involved a relay of trained Terrible Terrors and metal canisters.   
She was sitting at the desk in her room, looking out the window it was up against, with her head resting on her arms. She had felt oddly unmotivated and hadn’t wanted to participate in any training all day nor had she wanted much to eat. It was a strange funk that she couldn’t quite shake and was honestly starting to annoy her. She had no idea where it came from and even less of a clue as to how to stop it.   
She was beginning to consider consulting Gothi on it when a green terrible terror dropped a metal canister in front of her and then sat in front of her face.   
She jumped back with a gasp and reached for her axe but stopped herself before she could attack.  
It was just sitting there.  
Staring at her.   
Why wasn’t it attacking?  
She dropped her axe and cocked her head at the strange little beast, “what?”   
Oh great, she was talking to dragons now. Wonderous.   
It nudged the canister towards her then looked up at her with big dark eyes. It reminded her of a child begging for sweets.   
Astrid hesitantly reached for the canister, slowly getting closer to the tiny demon sitting on her desk. She picked up the cylinder and moved away carefully, not wanting to startle the thing.   
The lid looked like it screwed off and when she opened it she found a rolled-up piece of paper inside. Pulling it out she noticed the somewhat messy handwriting on the paper. It was in Norse, but it looked like it was written by someone who’d stopped using the language and then suddenly had to remember how to spell every word ever uttered. It was legible and understandable, but every now and then she noticed a character that had clearly been erased once or twice before it was completely correct.   
More important, though, was the fact that it was from Hiccup.   
Astrid was amazed at his descriptions of Rome and the dragons. She got the full story as to why he left and the events that led up to it as well. She was happy to hear he was enjoying living in Rome, had new friends and was perfectly fine there. She was surprised when she found out he was a legionnaire and had apparently learned how to use a sword and more shocked to find out he had killed a giant dragon known as the Red Death which was the cause for the dragon raids stopping. She chuckled at the sketch of a zippleback that was on the other side of the page as well as hiccup’s explanation that it had taken him a couple tries to figure out how to best word everything he had to say which lead to writing on a couple pages of his sketchbook. And she was awed by Hiccup’s explanation that Rome used Terrors as a main communications system to quickly send letters to each other across the empire and even across the seas.   
She only wished he’d given more description about Rome. it honestly sounded amazing. Hiccup’s brief explanation of their architecture, armies and food was bedazzling. She almost wanted to visit, although she knew it was nearly impossible without other people finding out about Hiccup.   
Before she could mull over the contents of the letter much the terror made a strange kind of chirping sound and Astrid decided she may as well feed the poor thing seeing as it had flown so far.   
Good thing her parents were away or swiping some jerky from the cabinet would have been a lot harder.   
As the green terror munched on the dried meat Astrid sat on her bed thinking about the letter, she absentmindedly fiddled with the leather wrapped around her axe’s handle.  
Talking to Hiccup brought some interesting questions to mind, specifically about her views on dragons. Hiccup didn’t seem to be trying to persuade her to his side of the argument but the way he spoke about dragons confused her. He talked about the Night Fury Toothless like it was a harmless friend. To her it was a beast.   
But the stories Johan told and the way Hiccup spoke about dragons suggested the entirety of Rome was of a similar opinion on dragons. If an entire Empire that seemed so huge could agree on dragons being less demonic than the inhabitants of Berk lead her to believe then there had to be some truth to it.  
She knew there was a definitive way she could make her mind up on dragons but as soon as the thought crossed her mind she pushed it away. It scared her just a little if she was being honest.   
She picked up her axe and left the room, giving the terror a stern look that she hoped conveyed the meaning of ‘behave’. If she was going to be stuck in her thoughts she may as well train whilst doing so. 

Hiccup and Toothless jack knifed into the air, accelerating every second they flew.  
His hair stuck to his head as they flew through another cloud, he felt a bead of water trickle down the back of his neck. Toothless’ scales glimmered as the moonlight hit them.   
The air became noticeably thinner and Toothless let his ascent slow suddenly and they fell backwards as gravity took over once again before Hiccup twitched his foot and they soared, speeding through the air and avoiding the clouds, wind whistled by and chilled Hiccup to the bones. The warmth from Toothless and the leather flight suit was probably all that kept him from hypothermia on these flights.   
They twisted and turned, dropped and soared, moving in sync through the air, every part of them ingrained with what it was to fly. Instinct took on as they lost themselves in the starry night sky.   
Toothless warbled and let his wings stretch out, ending their adrenaline packed flight and just relaxing, rocketing through the clouds.   
Hiccup sat up, taking in the sky above and the sea below.   
His friends weren’t too far, on an island they’d stopped at on their way back home. They were in Viking territory still, somewhere near Oswald the Agreeable’s tribe, but the island that they called home had a large area of ocean they liked to lay claim to so they needn’t worry about being seen. Besides, Toothless was built for night flights. Hiccup was quite sure that if it weren’t for his duties as a legionnaire and his human need to interact with fellow Romans he’d have switched completely into a nocturnal sleep schedule by now. Heck, he wasn’t far off considering how late he tended to stay up and the military necessity that he still be awake in the early morning.   
Hiccup pulled himself from his thoughts. He’d received a letter form Astrid once again, this time filled with basic small talk and updates on Berk. He liked talking to Astrid, she was an interesting person to hold a conversation with. Her worldview was so starkly different to anyone else he talked to at all frequently. He realised, semi-belatedly, that he didn’t just want to keep in contact with her for the relief that maybe his past wasn’t so shameful but also because he genuinely wanted to be friends with her. Yet he’d gotten past the teenage crush he had on her ages ago, what made him want to talk to her?   
He must have been a much more social creature than he’d first realised.   
The inevitable question was, however, how did a dragon rider befriend a dragon killer? 

Drago walked along the deck of his ship, watching his men fumble and stand at attention as he passed.   
He came to the front of the ship, eyes narrowing in on the scouts and some of his higher up men. They held telescopes to their eyes, looking out to the sea that roiled beneath the boat.  
“sir! We’ve spotted another one!”  
Drago took the telescope from the man, holding it up and zeroing in on the disappearing figure of a dragon. Small, sleek, likely stealth class. It was a scouting Roman.   
He had intended to reach Rome without coming in contact with any Romans, he’d taken a long-time interrogating merchants and sea-based nomads to discover the least travelled route around Rome. he had it all planned to a T. he could snoop in and gather more information on Rome, find out exactly how big it was- because no map he had covered it all- how many soldiers and dragons they had.  
It would seem he would not have time. All because of one wayward dragon rider.   
He grit his teeth, hand clenched around the telescope. He felt a growl rise up in his throat.   
“call the ships in, we make land where originally planned,”  
“sir, they’ll see us coming if we mass together, we’ll lose the element of surprise.”  
“it’s already lost.” He growled out past his teeth, “we make land and rush them, we’ll take several towns before they can call in a decent force. Besides,” he picked up his spear and banged it against the metal rail behind him, “we still have the upper hand.”


End file.
